🎶 click to play scene track

mira Rose sat high on her Solar Throne, named in part for the gilt carvings of sun rays that ringed around the head of the ivory chair. Within her brown and beautiful face emitted enough rage to outshine the merciless radiance of ten thousand burning suns. Such was the fury she felt towards the accused standing opposite from her.

Since word had travelled across the water of the attempt on her daughter’s life, she had sent demands calling for an immediate extradition—arranging an outfit of Lightshields herself to ensure the deed was done. While many might consider there to be little in the way of tenderness from Amira towards Laila, she had known nothing but pure, undistilled repugnance towards the one who’d see her harmed. The thought of anyone having the sheer audacity to cause ill to her heiress, her legacy, was a transgression of the highest order that demanded answering to.

Seated beside her was Laila, who shifted slightly on her birch bench as she came to regard Darius.

For a creature in chains, he seemed relatively untroubled by his condition, wearing them with a certain leonine composure. As though it was he who submitted to this treatment for the comfort and safety of others rather than being the subject of an arrest.

Laila didn’t realise what the sight of him would do to her. How there was anger mixed into the cocktail of her nerves. Confusion that he’d simultaneously tried to kill her and yet tried to spare her from her fate.

“Come over to me, Darius Calantis.”

He walked over to Amira in brisk, confident strides as he scaled the steps to stand before her. Now up close to the impératrice, the prodigious build that the occassi were known for was even more pronounced. He towered over her like a monument.

“Kneel.”

He descended to one knee before her.

Amira hooked her finger beneath his chin and tilted it up to face her before cupping his cheeks in her palms. She held him so delicately. Laila almost thought she could’ve been touching her. Then she saw the light in her palms become infused inside him, irradiating his skin with a divine glow as plumes of white smoke coiled around his temples.

Darius hissed in agony but he did not pull away.

“Light illuminates, Darius Calantis, it reveals the truth no matter how you may try to obscure it.” Her mother spoke calmly over his strained grunts. “You stand accused of attempted murder. How do you plead?”

“Guilty.” The word was extracted from him like she had plucked them from his tongue by force.

“Walk us through your crime.”

Darius hissed again as his cheeks ignited with pale light. “I sent for one of my underlings to rig Princess Laila’s carriage to explode on the night of our annual tarot tournament. The grenade was a weapon of my own design, built by my own hand.”

“You admit then to orchestrating the crime right down to the very weapon you would use to accomplish it. You lured the princess to a public event under false pretences, certain she would not come to expect such a brazen attack in public quarters. And while you charmed and danced with her, you admit to sending a subordinate to rig her carriage to explode when she returned, unsuspecting all the while. Yet in spite of all this planning, meticulous and premeditated as it may be, you managed to fail in your mission. Tell us why.”

Laila’s breath suspended in fear of what he would say. She still remembered the weight of his body above hers when he’d shoved her away to safety. The way he’d looked at her with such sheer desperation in his gaze.

“I had begun to develop second thoughts,” Darius managed to grunt through his torment, beads of sweat bejewelling his forehead. “Until eventually such thoughts took precedence.”

“You mean to tell us you fumbled your mission purposefully out of mere guilt?” Amira sounded almost humoured in her astonishment. “Even in knowing the consequences you may surely reap?”

She could not believe him.

“My entire life I’ve been a bastard. I’d known my life to have no meaning and thus sought to detach meaning from the lives of others as well. I’d committed a number of grave ills with no remorse and yet, I could not do the same of her. Her life, to me, held meaning.” He glanced up to meet Amira’s gaze. “I couldn’t simply snuff it.”

“How noble of you to infuse meaning into the life of one victim!”

“I never implied my motivation to be of virtuous cause,” Darius replied, his forehead wrinkled, “but my motivation it was.”

Laila looked away from him, head and heart too burdened by his declaration. She couldn’t understand how a sentiment so polluted by his soot-stained psyche could almost be considered sweet.

“And upon whose orders were you forced to enact this crime?”

Darius attempted to stopper his tongue, straining with fiendish might against the compulsion of Amira’s enchantment.

“Whose orders were they?” Amira emphasised every word.

“My father,” he spurted out, his breathing harsh and body trembling. “I acted upon the orders of my father, the Rex of Mortos.”

“Well then.” Amira settled back into her seat. “Why does your father want her dead?”

“He wants war.” Darius looked to Laila. “You were simply meant to be the declaration.”

“No further questions,” Amira conceded, “in light of what you’ve told us and due to your actions before and thereafter the crime I see no reason to delay your verdict any further. Thus I hereby sentence you to life imprisonment where you will be committed to the house of correction. Take him away.”

Two Lightshields arrived immediately to extract him from the room, delivering Darius towards a long, narrow path to retribution.

🎶 click to play scene track

Laila walked through the gold-veined marble hallways towards her mother’s glazed doors, nodding towards the Lightshields that guarded them.

They opened the doors to let her through and she entered the frescoed walls of her mother’s antechamber with its splendid silk furnishings. Amira herself stood before her gilt mirror talking with Lady Commander Cassia, the head of the Lightshield guard.

Laila remained at the doorway to overhear, realising they were discussing suspicious activity from the Mielette dynasty following the diplomatic mess up north. Laila bit her lip, puzzling over what it meant. She realised their kind had often disagreed but should there be lasting dissent from a dynasty, political in-fighting was sure to follow.

The conversation soon ended the moment Laila entered and Amira drifted over to take her seat on the settee. “Come over, aurore. Sit.”

Laila stepped forward into the room in uncertainty. Her mother was always very particular about the way she conducted herself in her chambers. She decided to sit in the armchair she always took.

“Would you like some tea?”

Laila shook her head. “No, thank you.”

“How about coffee?”

“I’m fine,” Laila said, always slightly discomfited in the face of her mother’s magnanimity. She knew there was always something less benevolent to follow. “Léandre said that you requested I visit.”

“Yes, I wanted to discuss with you about what I feel our next move towards Mortos should be.” She gestured for a sprite to pour her a cup of cappuccino with a fleur-de-lis made in the foam. “In light of what’s being said about Lanius Rex, I fear he has become a liability to our country. A dangerous one. One that I feel should be best removed before he has a chance to become more of a threat.”

“What are you saying?” Laila asked.

“I’m saying that I no longer think your method of diplomacy is sufficient in dealing with this country and it is time for me to take matters into my own hands. If Lanius Rex desires a war then I shall give him one. Let him see we will not be so easily cowed by a hulking brute with a god complex.”

Laila found herself nodding along, heart cold to the implications of her mother’s words. She hadn’t felt warm since the assassination attempt, wrath ravaged her insides like a winter famine. “I agree with you, Maman. We have entertained this creature’s whims long enough. I want him off the throne.”

“Glad we’ve come to see eye to eye on this,” Amira said approvingly. Her voice was warm and golden, like a slow-drip of nectar. “The only question is who to install in his place.” She took a sip from her coffee. “You believe Dominus to be a more amenable candidate?”

“He will certainly be resistant to ascension, he is greatly loyal to his father.” She shifted uncomfortably in her seat. “How loyal I have yet to test.”

“You think his loyalty to him will supersede his feelings for you?”

Laila swallowed the unease swelling in her throat. “I guess I shall find out.”

“Well, we’ll need to move quickly. I have our naval forces ready to deter any invasion from Mortos and should there be any sign of assemblage, I have given them strict orders to invade on their own. It appears the only language these creatures understand is that of violence. And fear and intimidation and cruelty. We are merely translating to suit their needs.”

Laila nodded in deference. Her mother was right and she knew it, if Lanius was not stopped then his aggression towards their country would only escalate. He was a monster. Just like Darius was a monster. She’d extended her hand and they had bitten her for it. Perhaps it was time to change tactics. Perhaps it was time for the monster to be slain.