The Beginning After The End novel Chapter 509

Chapter 509: Curtains fall

Agrona Vritra

My voice projected out through the networks of psychically resonant antennas, crystalline receivers, and mental projection artifacts interspersed carefully across the continent. The projected images currently being fed into the system froze in place, seizing and distorting just as Khaernos, a hollow visage in my form, was taken through the opening into Epheotus.

“Listen to me now, and listen very, very carefully. The images currently being shown to you are a lie, a bitter fabrication intended to foment fear and uncertainty.”

I let only the smallest flame of my rage—a towering inferno with which I would ignite the skies—leak into the connection. Those who heard my voice would quake and sweat to hear it, but they would know my fury was not for them.

“Instigators within our own populace would have you believe that these images are proof of my defeat, but this is a fabrication. Those spreading these rumors seek only to weaken the foundations of our nation. These are the same betrayers who went to war against their own, who I in turn offered my forgiveness to. They have spurned my kindness, as they have spurned your desire for peace.”

I paused, letting the words be digested.

“I told you before, my people, that I would protect Alacrya—and all those who still call themselves loyal—from the dragons, and I have done so. The forces of Kezess Indrath have been forced back into hiding within Epheotus by the mere image of me. But I know you struggle. I know you are tested daily in your faith. These past weeks have not been easy for you, and you are right to question if I can uphold my vows. I will not hold this against you. Instead, I will show you, so that the proof of your eyes may reinforce the faith in your heart.”

Ji-ae’s consciousness inhabited the mental projection artifact with me, figuratively looking over my shoulder like a nervous wife. I smiled. We were just getting to the good parts.

“But I need something in return. In part, I have already taken some of what I need: the wind that swept across this continent, drawing on your mana and pulling it away. You bore this burden stoically, as I knew you would. I told you that I, your High Sovereign, would guide you through the dangers to come, and you will see this promise fulfilled. I have given everything of myself to make Alacrya the powerful and advanced civilization that it is, but for what is to come, I needed a small part of that power back. You, my people, are more than strong enough to share this burden, I promise you.”

‘We’re currently reaching approximately seventy percent of the continent's magical population,’ Ji-ae informed me as I paused, again letting my words sink in to those listening. ‘As expected, emotions are turbulent and difficult to assess. I’d recommend striking a stronger tone against the asuras.’

“Although I have forced the dragons back, they are still a constant and ever-burning danger to you, my people. Some of you may doubt, but this is only because you don’t understand the full danger that Kezess Indrath represents. Every day, you benefit from the work I’ve done within the Relictombs, the magic and technology left behind by an ancient civilization of mages. But you may not know that it was the dragons that ended that civilization. And why? For no other reason than being knowledgeable and powerful in a way that Kezess himself is not, and can never be. You, my people, pose that same threat to him.

“Which is why, today, we will strike a blow against Epheotus that they will never recover from.”

My words radiated out across the nation that I built and trembled into the bones of my people. My people, who were manifested out of my thoughts and born of my blood.

‘I’ve finished reversing the system’s polarity. It will be fully powered in the next few minutes.’ Ji-ae hesitated. With a thought, I pushed her to continue. ‘I have repeated the calculations for exactly how much power will be required and feel the need to repeat my earlier warnings: this will take almost everything you have. It leaves you in terrible danger—’

I will be fine, I assured her. Out loud, I continued, my voice still being projected across the continent. “You, though, must recuperate. Rest and rebuild your strength and your hope. I will need more from you soon, and will call upon every one of you to ensure Alacrya stands victorious over all enemies. Turn your eyes skyward, and do not be afraid. What you are about to see is a manifestation of your power.”

I let the connection linger within a few seconds of silence, then disconnected myself from the projection artifacts.

“Your reversal of the rebels’ insistence that you’d been defeated has been effective,” Ji-ae said, her voice audible within the cramped, equipment-filled chamber. “Coupled with today’s show of force, I calculate any further resistance among our own will be minimal. The results are too far reaching to be…” She trailed off.

I smiled into the air. “Do not be afraid, Ji-ae.”

If a disembodied mind could bite its lip nervously, Ji-ae was doing exactly that.

I shoved my chair away from the artifacts I’d been speaking into and stood tall. My nerves were jittery, and the seething rage I’d been suppressing clawed upward like flames up a dead tree. Momentarily enthused by the process of reaching out directly to my people and destroying Seris’s feeble attempts to win support, my entire mind turned instead toward Kezess and Epheotus.

I could feel the Harvester thrumming within the stones of Taegrin Caelum, urgent and inevitable. My own body harmonized with it, both being full of the mana drawn from Alacrya’s population.

Moving at a quick march, I left the transmission chamber and started toward the heart of my private wing. I stepped over the corpse of a talented young Instiller who’d perished when Taegrin Caelum went on lockdown. My rage was warranted. The destruction of the Legacy was a catastrophic blow to my plans, considering certain aspects of growth were now beyond my reach. But it was not the end, and I was not without a way to strike back at my enemies.

A change of direction was necessary, that was all. Why else have backup plans? I increased my pace. Afterall, an entire continent was now staring into the sky, waiting with baited breath for their lord to show them the future.

“I feel compelled to remind you that our success isn’t guaranteed,” Ji-ae interjected. “Even with you channeling all the mana absorbed to awaken you—and based on known parameters, which leave a large number of variables decided unknown—I can only quantify our chances for success at eighty-three percent.”

“Please, Ji-ae. This is the culmination of hundreds of years of research and development. It’s going to work.” My words smoldered with the same certainty that I’d felt when we finally had a vessel for the Legacy. That had never been a guarantee, either. I reminded Ji-ae of such.

I took the stairs down several at a time, letting myself fly as much as fall, urgency building within me.

“And yet failure there wouldn’t have been quite so catastrophic—or public,” she countered. “Forgive me, Agrona. I did not like the idea of you—or your facsimile—going yourself to find Arthur Leywin, and I regret not pushing harder to make my voice heard. So I am pushing now.”

A sour, squirming sensation wriggled into my anger and eagerness at the mention of Arthur Leywin. “Your inability to calculate the probability around that confrontation was a warning sign that I shouldn’t have ignored. We will both be more attentive to such signs in the future.”

I pursed my lips and blew a raspberry into the air. “Whether he knows it or not, the boy has only made things so, so much worse for his people. Now…” I clenched my fists, and the stone walls shattered, cracks spider-webbing outward like dark bolts of lightning. “Now, he will see that I was truly trying to be merciful.”

I felt Ji-ae retract. My anger made her uncomfortable, I knew. She was a scientist at heart, and although millenia within Relictombs had darkened her psyche, she did not express anger often. She buried the feelings she could no longer properly experience or understand behind logic and calculations. But, as long as the ends justified the means, she never balked at doing what needed to be done.

Still, Arthur Leywin stuck in my mind like a tick in flesh.

As I rushed through the fortress, I considered what Ji-ae had told me after I’d returned. This warning she’d received, and its mention of Fate, was disconcerting. I’d thought my research into Fate wasted with the loss of the Legacy, but it seemed as if Fate and I were still somehow connected. More discomforting, though, was the question this conjured in my thoughts.

How is Arthur Leywin connected to Fate?

Still, although I had gone far beyond the point where I could no longer consider Arthur Leywin a mere curiosity, neither would I bend to fear of him. When the walls came crashing down, Arthur and Kezess would both be standing under them.

I pushed these thoughts away and began receding into myself as I gathered the vast quantity of purified mana that had been fed into my body to reawaken my dormant mind.

The interface chamber was small and, by necessity, nondescript. Runic patterns were etched into a half-moon shaped table that dominated the hexagonal, domed room. Silver-inlaid lines were carved into the purple sandstone of the walls, drawing focus to carefully calculated points throughout the space. Light through the dome refracted in a way the eye struggled to make sense of. The entire chamber carried a sense of distraction and discomfort, urging anyone who stumbled upon it to turn away.

With the door closed behind me, it became invisible, the silver lines bordering it a part of the overall design.

I stood in front of the table for a long moment, taking in the dazzling array of symbols and shapes. I had designed the spells woven into it myself, a cunning fusion of basilisk ingenuity and djinn understanding of how magic knitted the world together.

The djinn civilization spanned the world and spread into the dimension where they’d housed their Relictombs. As I had learned over these centuries of pilfering knowledge from the Relictombs, the spellforms they covered themselves with gave them a control over mana and aether that even the asura could not easily understand. They knew how to construct and connect all kinds of portals, and they made varied and interesting use of that knowledge throughout the reign of their civilization. The most creative use was with the Relictombs itself.

Because of this, they also had to master a specific knowledge of how to expand, close, and even destabilize the portals they relied on so intensely.

Mana began to jump and spark around me as I connected myself to the interface. My hands rested on the table, carefully positioned over a series of connected runes and shapes. The interface absorbed my mana, and light flickered through the symbols in yellows, greens, reds, and blues. The artifact itself did nothing to guide the process; only I knew the specific sequences of mana that needed to be imbued into the specific runic arrays that would activate the targeting array.

“Everything seems to be working as expected,” Ji-ae said, her voice emanating out of the air.

I felt my eyes begin to lose focus and turned my gaze upward. Light was spilling across the dome and spraying around the room, painting the walls with jumping, distorted images that quickly melted away before resolving into anything that could be made sense of. However, with each second that passed, the light focused in on the very center point of the chamber, right where I was standing.

I began to blink rapidly. My eyes were rolling back in my head, and it felt as if I might stumble over backwards. Just at the peak of this sensation, I took my hands away from the controls.

My vision changed. I was looking out at the Basilisk Fang Mountains, as if I were standing atop Taegrin Caelum’s highest tower. The view was distorted slightly, foggy and uneven, like peering through stained glass. I felt Ji-ae beside me, despite neither of us having a physical form.