Chapter XLIII

The angels that had come to defend the city disappeared only moments after the demons attacking it did. After that the soldiers and anyone they could recruit for help began the cleanup of the city, led by Sarahi. They searched for survivors, healed whomever they could. When they dug Milo out of the rubble of the house that had collapsed on him his first words were, “Where's Hadar? Where's the King? Is he safe?” No one said anything, they just gave him solemn looks. One of the soldiers mustered up enough courage to merely point and Milo ran off in that direction.

He found Grigori, still kneeling on the cold ground and weeping. Milo saw two bodies being wrapped in cloth and loaded onto two carts, one heading towards the very same tomb where Amasi was buried and the other heading towards the city gates, presumably to be taken somewhere else, maybe dropped in a ditch. “Where's Hadar?” Milo asked. Grigori pointed at the cart being taken towards the royal family's tomb. “Oh no! No! That can't be!” Milo ran over to the cart. He pushed the men rolling it along so they'd stop moving it and grabbed the sheet covering Hadar's body.

“You don't want to see,” Grigori said, his voice wavering. “You don't want that to be your last memory of him, remember him as he was.”

“What happened?”

“He did the most noble thing...” Grigori couldn't even finish the words.

“No...he was counting on me...it was a ruse to stop that bastard, Cory! He needed me there, me, his bodyguard...his best friend...and I wasn't there...” Milo dropped to his knees, wailing and sobbing, beating his fists on the ground until even his calloused knuckles were bloody and torn. That was how Sarahi found him. She walked over, tears in her eyes, and knelt beside him. She wrapped a comforting arm around his shoulder, but what amount of comfort could ease the pain or the guilt of losing such a perfect friend in such a way? Nothing in the world made sense, why someone so merciful, so compassionate, so righteous should have to die at the hands of someone so cruel and heartless, all in a pointless war started by twisted madmen who wanted to see this beautiful world come to an end. Even though Cory had died and the Nihilite army was defeated nothing about this felt like a victory. The people would call it that, they'd say that their king gave his life for that victory, to save everyone, but the way Milo would always remember it was as a defeat. He'd failed his king and friend, he'd lost the war.

All throughout the funeral service, watching Hadar's body being buried in the royal tomb, Milo thought about everything he'd gone through with his friend, as did Sarahi and Grigori. The voice of the Arch-Bishop as he gave the eulogy was drowned out by the sounds of their own memories. What he was saying was meaningless drivel anyway, he didn't know Hadar like they did, so who was he to tell them that Hadar was a good man? Milo remembered all the times as kids they played together, pretending that they were already the great heroes they'd grow up to be. He remembered the few times, before they grew out of such practices, that they'd cheated off of each other's homework. Sarahi remembered all of the jokes Hadar would tell, and how awkward he always was telling them. The way he ruined the punchlines and the deliveries, usually by laughing as he told them. She remembered being there for him when he lost his own brother, and she remembered how hard they had to try to conceal how they really felt on their wedding day. Grigori remembered the struggle he'd gone through, trying to come to grips with the feelings he had for this beautiful, pure-hearted man. He remembered how Hadar saved his life over and over again, and how he'd scolded him for trying to take his own life. Here was a man who truly loved everyone around him, and had exemplified virtue. “Stop worrying about trying not to sin, and start worrying about embodying virtue!” he had told Grigori. This was how Hadar lived.

The three of them, along with many other on-lookers, watched as the body of their beloved king was placed in the tomb. All of the rest of the world seemed to melt away, and all they could see was their king's descent into the underground, to be welcomed by the angels. He was gone, and yet he was not gone. Not only was he in the paradise prepared for all of the righteous, he was in their minds and in their souls. For the rest of their lives they'd carry the memories of him with them, and in that way they'd never have to live without him. They'd make sure that stories of his life were told, ones that would honor the sacrifices he made for the kingdom, and for his people.

After the funeral, Grigori talked to Milo and Sarahi in the castle. “How do you get over a loss like this?” he asked.

“You've never suffered loss?” Milo asked.

“Not like this. Sure, I've seen people die enough times, even people I cared about...but the Inquisition always taught that death was a good thing. That it was selfish to mourn the dead, and they taught us never to get too attached to anyone when they were alive. I've never cried for anyone's death, not even as a boy...”

“Then this is the first time you've experienced sorrow...”

“Because Hadar was the man who taught me to experience joy.”

“You never get over loss,” Milo said. “It never stops hurting when someone you love leaves you. It may hurt less over time, but it never goes away. The best you can do is keep telling yourself that they're in a better place, and celebrate the fact that they ever lived. That's what's important, in the end. We all die, and in that way we are all the same, but what we do with our lives...that's what makes us all unique. Remember Hadar for what made him unique, to you, and to everyone.”

“That's the best we can do?”

“That's the best we can do,” Sarahi concurred.

But for Sarahi this was almost a lie. She intended to get justice for what had been done there. The King of Nihilus would pay. After the funeral the Council crowned her Queen with the understanding that once her child, who was yet to be born, grew up that she would pass on the crown immediately to said heir. Her first act as Queen was to launch a retaliatory attack on Nihilus. Many protested that they needed more time to rebuild everything they lost, but Sarahi insisted that they needed to move quickly, or Nihilus might strike again.

When the Arxian army got there, though, they found almost no resistance. Most of the Nihilite army had already been destroyed in Arx, and the remnants had been wiped out by Kalvyn Silverlocke and his revolutionaries. Even the King of Nihilus was dead in what the Arxians and Nihilites alike would call “the wrath of God.” With so little resistance, Arx's military made short work of conquering Nihilus. Sarahi ordered the warlock academy of Leti to be destroyed, and it was torn down. All of its professors and students were kicked out or thrown in prison. She'd ordered her soldiers to destroy any books they found on the Nihilite religion, but there were no books for them to burn there.

The Nihilites feared, as they saw Leti Acadaemy destroyed, that they would all be killed, or enslaved, to feed Sarahi's vengeance, but Sarahi was not so vengeful. Upon learning of the uprising led by Kalvyn Silverlocke, who died alongside King Therion, she realized that not all of the people of Nihilus supported their wicked king. Instead of making them all suffer for what Cory did to Hadar, what Meriel did to Zoe, and what the Nihilite army did to their homeland, she rebuilt Nihilus. She made it prosper, and Arx shared in that prosperity. In just a few years' time, both kingdoms were rebuilt, but Nihilus was no longer its own kingdom. The Grand Duke's second-born son, Jachai, became the Duke of Nihilus, and worked to re-educate the people in the Agalmite faith.

Milo and Sarahi tried all they could think of to destroy the ring Cory kept with him, but nothing worked. Even under intense heat the ring showed no signs of even getting red-hot, and even diamonds could not cut it. Eventually they decided on having their agents transport the ring to the south-western bay and cast it into the sea, as deep into the ocean as they could. Surely it would never be found there.

Grigori couldn't bear to live in that castle anymore, and so he went off to live in some small village somewhere, live a peasant's life. Milo suggested the village he was born in, and Grigori agreed, that way they could still keep track of each other if they needed to.

With the Obelisk of the Law destroyed, Sarahi worked on a plan to rebuild it, but even the surviving priests who'd served in the Grand Cathedral every day and the Arch-Bishop himself couldn't fully agree on what all it said. Eventually Sarahi got them all to agree to a new, much smaller monument, one that summed up the spirit of the Law, since they couldn't remember it word for word, and they included the words of their martyr king upon it.

“The Law can be stated as thus: 'Focus on embodying virtue.' The greatest virtues are Compassion, Justice, Courage, Wisdom, and Patience. Most important of these is Compassion. Ergo let love be the whole of the Law. Live your life by love, and if you do so the rest of the Law will come naturally, for it will no longer be written on stone, but upon your heart.”