How can I be him? I did not even want to rule. If I had been allowed to remain a Sun Prince who composed poetry, sang, hunted, and ate and drank too much, I should have been content.
“What must we do to save him, King Vex?” his mother asked, looking hopefully up into the Night King’s face.
Vex’s gaze came back from those far shores to look at his mother. He was very present. Very there. “He must not remember any of this. Not his past. Not me. Especially not me. You must keep knowledge of Ailduin’s reign to a minimum.”
One of her hands crept up to her throat. “Forever? I–”
“Not forever. Until he is ready,” Vex answered.
“How long will that be?”
“Until he is strong enough to handle the memories and is anchored once more to life. Then he will be told all,” Vex answered.
Aquilan thought of how his mother had hidden those books from him in her library. That made sense now. She had been trying to honor her promise to Vex and protect him from his own history. It seemed so absurd that remembering he had died once would make him die again. He couldn’t remember a time in his life when he would have felt that way. Yet he knew neither his mother or Vex were lying about this. They certainly believed what they were saying.
She nodded. “It will be as you say. But I can only do this once he is with us. What about now?”
“I shall place a memory block upon him. It will not last forever. It will wear away. And Ailduin is strong. He will want to remember,” Vex told her.
Yes, I will want to. Aquilan shook his head. And yet I cannot. There is nothing in my head about Vex.
Even as he stared at Vex, studied his face and form, he felt a blankness. A gulf between them. He had no memories of this elf. Yet Vex had been precious to him for longer than he had lived this time. The memory block was effective.
Or it was renewed… recently. Could that have happened?
That alarmed him on all sorts of levels. And the steadiness of the stone beneath his feet felt less certain.
“And when that happens, I should seek you out here?” She asked.
“I will find you.” Vex’s lips flattened as he gazed around them for a moment and seemed to really see it as it was now. “This place… is no longer safe.”
Were the Leviathan’s webs starting to appear back then? Or was this before that?
“I understand,” she said. “I… Thank you, King Vex. I cannot say enough how grateful–”
He raised a hand to silence her. There were Blood Tattoos even on his palm and wrapped around Vex’s fingers. “There will come a time when I will ask something of you, Queen Meriel.”
“What–it does not matter. I will pay it,” she said, lowering her head in a combination of determination and shame.
Why shame? Surely he will not ask her to do something dishonorable to help me!
Vex chuckled and put two fingers beneath her chin. “It is not what you think. I will not ask you to betray your people or cause any evil to be done.”
Aquilan smiled and nodded. The Night King might have been painted as a cackling villain, but Ailduin would not have been best friends with him if that was truly the case.
I would not have been best friends with him.
“Then what will you ask?” She gazed up at Vex’s handsome yet somehow alien visage.
Vex’s red eyes glowed like witchfires. “That the life I give will eventually return to me.”
She stared. Her right hand fluttered by her throat. “I don’t–”
“Ailduin will be mine. I will come for him. You will hand him over. And he will leave the Aravae for the Kindreth,” Vex said simply.
But there was nothing simple about what he was asking.
Aquilan stared in shock. His mother did too. She was cradling her stomach protectively and possessively. What did Vex mean exactly?
