“So you knew I had nothing to do with the coup against you then? If you’ve been watching over me so carefully?” Rhalyf stared hard.
Vex’s smile was sad. “I knew you didn’t. But you did not come to my aid either.”
Rhalyf’s mouth popped open. That was not what he had expected Vex to say. “But you don’t need me! You don’t need anyone!”
“I believe Aquilan would say that isn’t true. That everyone needs someone,” Vex chuckled indulgently. He had an absurdly fond expression on his face, which really anyone with any sense would have when they thought of the Sun King, but Rhalyf had never thought to see such a look on the Night King’s face.
“Yes, but Aquilan doesn’t know you! And he believes that there is goodness in everyone–even Vesslan–and… Did you… Did you need me?” Rhalyf stopped himself as the yawning realization of what Vex was saying came over him.
Vex had known he had nothing to do with the coup.
Vex had hoped Rhalyf would come to his side to defend him.
Instead, Rhalyf had simply run away to save his own hide…
He would never regret meeting Aquilan and becoming the Sun King’s best friend. He had loved every second of that, but had he abandoned his uncle?
Again?
“Need is such an interesting word, don’t you think?” Vex gave him a slow-blink. Rather cat-like. Dangerously cat-like. Just before they swiped someone with a razor-sharp claw.
“You don’t need me, but would you have liked for me to come to you?” Rhalyf clarified.
“Liked?” Vex tilted his head to the side. “Liked? Hmmm, would I have liked my nephew to have come to me to warn me of danger and stand by my side against my enemies?”
“Y-yes,” Rhalyf’s voice caught.
Put like that it made his actions seem cowardly and traitorous, but for an entirely different reason than the one that had him running in the first place. Would this be the reason Vex gave for killing him? Suddenly, killing him seemed back on the table. And he would almost agree with Vex about it!
Vex bobbed his head as he crossed his arms at the wrists behind his back. “Yes, I think I would have.”
Rhalyf’s heart fell. Again, he had not gone to his uncle. Again he had turned away. Again, he had failed to take a chance on Vex. His chest felt very tight. He tried to draw in a full breath, but could not. Was Vex suffocating him? He leaned heavily on the railing. No, he was having a panic attack. He hadn’t had one of those since… Since in the Pedway. Gods, I’m losing my mind!
“But,” Vex said, echoing his own wailing “but” that had just appeared in his head, “we both know that I’ve not earned such loyalty or trust, have I?”
Rhalyf’s mouth opened. He closed it. He opened it again. He needed to answer this carefully. And honestly. Without offending Vex. Or blaming his uncle for what he had believed. Yet at the same time there was a very large “but” in there.
“I do not know you, Uncle. Only your reputation and that, of course, is perhaps not the face you would have shown to… to family,” Rhalyf answered. “But what I thought I knew was that you wouldn’t care if I was f-family, let alone innocent or guilty. You would simply destroy anyone and everyone who was connected to a coup against you without mercy or… or a moment’s thought.”
That about summed it up.
He had never had a relationship with Vex. He would have said that his mother had seen to that. But hadn’t Vex also? Vex could have sought him out. Vex could have pursued him. But he had not.
Vex was tapping his chin, nodding in agreement with all that Rhalyf had said. But did that mean he found it understandable? Forgivable? Or would he do–as Rhalyf’s mother had so often done–turn on a dime and lash out at him? He held himself very still. Loose, but still. It allowed him to react to whatever happened. But would it matter? His uncle’s power dwarfed his own. He would be destroyed in an instant.
“You are not wrong,” Vex finally said.
He agrees with me!
But Rhalyf continued to hold himself still. Waiting for the ax to fall. Waiting for his mother’s temper to erupt in his uncle.
“And, perhaps–under other circumstances–you would have been correct,” Vex continued.
Rhalyf blinked. “But not this time?”
Vex slowly turned towards him so that they were staring directly into one another’s eyes. There was nothing romantic about this. No seduction. It was like being sucked into the fires of the Under Dark where Rhalyf found himself dangling above the roaring flames that would consume his very soul.
“Ashryn would have never sought allies among my own kin. She planned to kill all of you as well,” Vex finally said.
