The Ruler of Ruin

“Why didn’t you want to come?” Amaranthine had asked me, and the words echoed through my brain like a fireball on the cusp of exploding. Instincts of the Gossamyr warned me that the wrong answer here could be catastrophic, so I had to think for a moment before I could put something into words that didn’t turn this light lunch into my funeral.

“It’s not that I didn’t want to come and see you again. I very much did, and do, and want to again. I’m not strong enough to withstand your grandeur, yet. It takes everything I have to refrain from jumping across this table and trying to kiss you,” I answered honestly. Those faceted red eyes watched me, the unfathomable depths peered into my soul.

“And I’m not worthy of touching you. You’re Amaranthine Sadow, Keeper of the Evernight Rose, Marchioness of the Black Sun, and I’m… “ I trailed off, gesturing to myself.

“A work in progress,” Amaranthine supplied the answer to my unfinished declaration in a much more charitable tone, and way, than I expected.

“I wasn’t born a full-fledged Mist Lord. In fact, I would wager our ages to be similar. The flows of time in the Gossamyr are inconsistent, especially compared to Mithras’s attempt at temporal control. Like you, I am an Enkindler, unlike you, I knew this from a very young age. My compatibility, or affinity with my concepts is nearly perfect, my advancement swift as lightning.” Amaranthine tapped her lip with the tip of one of her clawed, gloved, fingers.

“How is that possible? You destroyed Edgehold twenty-five years ago, in 329 E.C., and its 354 E.C. now?” I couldn’t see how she could be my age, if she destroyed a Castle twenty-five years ago as an adult.

“Mithras controls the flow of time for his so-called True World. He is powerful enough to manipulate the relativity of time between his realm and his neighbors, too. Mithras changed the flow of his little playground to be faster than his surrounding realms. From an outside perspective, like mine, the events within the ‘True World’ have been playing out in rapid speed ever since I destroyed that town. Until a year ago, he found what he was searching for: your brother.” Amaranthine laughed, and it reminded me of bells. Clear, silver bells, with beautiful notes carried on the wind of the Ebon Gale. Listen close enough, and the whispers of madness were there, concealed in the melodic laugh.

“Why does he want Etienne so badly?” I asked, honestly confused. Etienne was an obnoxious little brat.

“Compatibility. As you are compatible with Katrina, so too is your brother compatible with Mithras. The higher that compatibility, the more powerful an avatar he could become. Mithras is raising a new champion to defend his borders from the forces of those who attack him, such as Corvusol. It seems he anticipated Arx Maxima’s return and repolarization of the Gossamyr, and seeks to capitalize upon it.” Amaranthine shrugged, and I had a hard time not watching the way the black dress clung to her bust, but her eyes were much harder to look at.

I giggled, for a moment, as I realized it was safer to look at her breasts than her face. Shockingly, my danger sense didn’t go off, but I did hear an exasperated sigh. I needed to move the conversation on.

“Wouldn’t the Adventurers notice? They leave the True World to hunt the mists.” I wanted to scratch my head, but this time I refrained, remembering it didn’t feel satisfying any longer.

“Why do you think so many disappear? The mists are dangerous, yes, but many simply get lost in the temporal distortion and give up on returning at all. Few parties have true Mistwalkers, the skills are rare, and Mithras despises the mists, thus your people are at the mercy of a child having a natural affinity with the mists and developing as a naturally enkindled concept. As with your friend.” Amaranthine’s knowledge about the True World, Mithras, and where I’d come from felt wrong. Why would someone who destroyed a Castle even care?

“Why did so little time pass for you, while so much passed in Solarias?” I asked again, hoping maybe Amaranthine could explain in a way I understood.

“After I visited that Castle, slew the worthless fire mage and the two knights with vastly inflated egos, and freed the tortured spirits of the soul prison Corvusol said that was enough to satisfy him. I left, and Mithras shifted his realm to be as far away from my realm as he could. We have orbited one another on opposite sides of the Gossamyr ever since. The distance allows for the relative time to be even more dramatic than if we were neighboring realms. Do you understand?” Amaranthine spoke with a touch of annoyance, but this explanation I followed much easier than the previous.

“I do, thank you. Aren’t you worried about an enemy growing suddenly in strength?” If I could grow this powerful, this quickly, what would someone who had been properly groomed for it do?

Amaranthine laughed, and then her smile sent the whispers of insanity down my back, made shivers run down my spine, and tightened my pants, almost painfully. She was the definition of beauty, with a smile that promised oblivion, the hard angles of her face as sharp as the thorns of the roses that filled the glade, and her red eyes sparkled like a sea of chaos, begging me to get lost in them. How had I never noticed her teeth were so maliciously shaped, meant for rending meat and bone, much like my draconic fangs. I smiled back at her, unable to help myself.

“I was going to teach you a lesson, you know. Playing games with me when I make offers in good faith made me very vexed.” The lines of her lips changed with a cruel twist, and her voice made me squirm back in my chair slightly.

“Let me show you what I thought I’d do,” Amaranthine purred.

The timer in my upper vision said 13 minutes, 23 seconds. The seconds stopped ticking down. I swallowed hard, but Amaranthine didn’t move, didn’t speak, only watched me. I swore a minute or two must have passed us by, before the timer ticked down to 22 seconds.

“The Glade of the Evernight Rose is my realm. I am more powerful than Mithras, Corvusol, or even Arx Maxima here. If I wanted you to stay with me, you would, wouldn’t you?” Amaranthine’s tone was so sweet I could practically taste honey on my tongue, her floral scent filled my mind, and it was as if my mind became a house of mirrors, and in every mirror, there was Amaranthine Sadow.

Suddenly, Amaranthine stood before me, tilting my jaw so that my gaze drew from her barely covered chest to those gem-like red eyes.

“I would,” I whispered.

Vines of roses lifted me, along with her hand under my jaw. Her lips were firmer than I anticipated, and her tongue showed no fear of the fangs in my mouth. In a brief moment I knew euphoric bliss, her warm flesh against my cold scales.

Time is up.

0 minutes, 0 seconds.

Amaranthine’s lips retreated from mine, the warm humid air of the glade replaced the sensation of her skin against mine, and then the vines no longer held me up. I transitioned to standing on my own legs easily enough with the help of my tail, but the loss of closeness to the Fey left me with an empty, unfulfilled agony that threatened to rip my soul to pieces, and her knowing smile only fueled the flames in me to an inferno that threatened to explode out of me in the form of lightning and oblivion, madness and destruction.

“Next time,” Amaranthine whispered as a portal of roses formed behind her. The words echoed through the house of mirrors in my mind, a song, a promise of things I could only imagine in the twilight of her glade. I didn’t want to leave, I wanted to stay here with her.

“Come along, let’s go meet your friends,” Amaranthine chided me wickedly, and twirled on her heels to step through the portal first.

Both of my hearts thundered so strongly it seemed like a mad war drummer played in my head, underscoring the two words I couldn’t get over. Next. Time. Each word hit me, one after the other, in a promise of things to come so grand I forgot all about Etienne, Chrys, and that I was about to see Claire again.

I followed Amaranthine through the portal of roses and found myself in a much less grand forest. This one had towering trees that went hundreds of feet up into the air, but sunlight poked through the boughs. A hint of salt lay light on the breeze, but I only noticed those things while I took in Amaranthine.

In the moment my eyes weren’t upon Amaranthine, her garments had changed. She wore her black leather armor and cloak of raven feathers, and over her shoulder floated the black diamond that was Corvusol. I couldn’t help but marvel at the fact that the armor she wore managed to conceal even less than the black dress had. What did she even need armor for, if her tongue could probe my fangs without injury, when they still managed to cut and pierce my own tongue when I wasn’t careful.

“Corvi,” I greeted the black diamond, whose presence dampened the rampaging desires inside of me like a bucket of cold water. Mostly. The words next time still echoed like a promise, ready to rekindle the flames at any moment that I let my mind wander.

“Dragonling,” Corvusol greeted me. Neither of us brought up our last meeting.

Amaranthine didn’t stand idle, another rose portal formed, and Chrys and Arx Maxima stepped through, and it closed behind them. Arx Maxima immediately floated to my side and let out a soft sigh and pulse of warm light, as if she’d returned home.

Chrys just nodded to me and took a position a step behind me and to the right. Did that mean something in Gneissling society? Or in society in general? Perhaps an indication that she was part of my retinue? It was weird, and I would have preferred she simply stand next to me.

Amaranthine watched it all, an amused turn of her lips at the behavior of Chrys.

“You’ll find your Mistwalker a mile that way,” Amaranthine lazily gestured towards a hill. “Your Uncle is with her. As a gift…”

Amaranthine waved her fingers through the air in the direction she had pointed, and the air filled with a brief sound of shattered glass.

“I have freed him from his pact with me. It is a shame to lose a good retainer, but his loyalty to you will serve you well.” Amaranthine quietly strode up to me, and leaned in, her breath tickled the side of my face. “If your father ever leaves Solarias, I’ll release him to if you’re a good boy.”

Amaranthine didn’t wait for my response and continued past me to another rose portal.

“You may wish to move quickly, it seems they’ve run afoul some enemies,” Amaranthine’s voice carried behind her, even as she vanished into the rose portal, and it closed behind her.

“What happened to your clothes?” Chrys asked me, suspiciously.

“You forgot to take them off before bonding with the armor, didn’t you?” Arx Maxima asked with laughter tinkling in my head.

Strangely, even without a speaker to hear Arx Maxima from, Chrys burst into laughter at the crystals words in my mind.

“Explain how Chrys can hear you, while we run.” Delirium of Ruin appeared in my hand, and I broke into a run in the direction Amaranthine had told me Remy and Claire would be found in. I didn’t engage Galvanized, as it drew so much energy and I might need it for a fight. Even without it, Chrys had to push herself to keep up with me.

“I’ll be right behind you, Emery, you don’t need to wait for me,” Chrys called.

I caught a scent of burning ozone, a tell-tale sign of Remy fighting something, and heard a scream. Black lightning coursed along my scales, and I closed the distance in a rush.