An anticipatory heaviness gathered as Esmeray held her head high and took her first step towards the dais. With each thud of her black leather boots, beings shrank back from the Queen of Nothing–only a handful were brave or stupid enough to hiss insults as she passed. Esmeray paid them no mind. Her focus was on the two beings atop the dais.
Adara stood at the top of the steps, and Merrick felt his throat constrict as he beheld Esmeray’s twin. Adara’s normally beautiful face–the face her father had joked would bring any male to his knees–was now lined with shallow wrinkles creasing around her mouth and eyes. Her face twisted in anger, but there was a hollowness to her that Merrick had never seen before. Her hair was limp, lifelessly hanging around hershoulders like a heavy cloak. Even the small opal horns atop her head seemed muted. Adara’s wings were tucked close to her sides, the thin structure of them suggesting she rarely, if ever, flew.
Her light blue eyes were dull, the irises more grey-ish and full of hatred. Esmeray and Adara shared the same pale skin tone, but where Esmeray was curvy, lithe, and muscular due to independently training for decades, Adara looked bony and bloodless.
The spells that she so coveted were sucking the life out of her. Leaving a husk in their malicious aftermath.
But it was the gargoyle with the golden wings atop the second throne that made Merrick’s heart leap. Keerian sat upon the large marble throne–face frozen in pure shock from watching his mate break down the doors with ease and waltz up the aisle. His curly hair was pulled back in a bun, and his normally close-cropped beard had grown out past his chin, the red and brown curls thick. He wore a simple, long-sleeved tunic with silver buckles at the throat, and loose satin pants, both pure white to match Adara’s lace dress. But Merrick noted he looked unharmed. A little haggard and his beard was much too burly, but no injuries marred his body.
Adara’s eyes narrowed onto her sister, flicking up to the crown Esmeray wore as a challenge and a promise. Noting the murderous look in Adara’s eyes, Merrick stepped in front of Lenna, his grey wings opening wide, blocking the Oracle from any magic that was inevitably about to be unleashed.
As Esmeray approached the marble steps leading to the dais, the court around them started to panic once more. A handful of fae had tried to wane, only to realize they were trapped here. Esmeray had, once again, blanketed a throne room with wards–forcing everyone gathered to stay.
So the Oracle could project the truth.
Frenzied voices began ringing out as some beings screamed, others began pushing and shoving each other out of the way. Merrick saw the glint of steel being passed between gowned bodies, the ulterior motives unclear.
Were these allies?
Or foes?
Sparrow seemed to note the same, and a soft green sheen of light began sparkling around each of the Oracle’s footsteps, swathing her in a muted glow of protection magic. Merrick thanked the gods for Sparrow’s quick thinking. If anything happened to Lenna, they were fucked.
Merrick felt his ring heat up on his finger, Laurent’s steady voice welcoming.
“Keep an eye on Lenna. I don’t like how the court is behaving. This could get nasty real quick.”
The two curved daggers at his belt were easily within reach, and Merrick brushed the hilt of one lightly with his fingers to keep himself grounded. Focused. He glanced back at his commander, still seated on the marble throne.
Keerian seemed to struggle, trying to get off the throne he occupied, unsuccessfully. His bright, moss green eyes were filled with fear as he witnessed Esmeray stop in the middle of the room and reach into that special pocket of space to slowly pull out her golden staff. Merrick had asked Esmeray back at Sparrow’s house where she got the weapon. She had cut her eyes to him mischievously before stating she found it, and its name was Goldriel.
Esmeray tilted her head to the side and smiled. “Hello, sister.”
Adara took one step closer to the edge of the dais, ignoring her twin to address the chaotic court. “The Queen of Nothing has come to interrupt us on this holy night with her nefariousintentions.” The beings quieted. The mayhem and disarray abruptly changed throughout the room to a heavy tension. The court seemed to await the next words with bated breath. Adara finally addressed Esmeray, her voice lowering as she spat, “How dare you show your face here, youbitch.”
“That is no way to speak to your True Queen Absolute,” Esmeray replied, loud enough for the whole throne room to hear, black wings spreading wide as she stopped short, Goldriel tapping the ground lightly. “I thought you’d learned your manners over the past century. Or, at least, the way Irridessen’s succession magic works.”
Merrick started, staring incredulously at her. He knew what Esmeray had done the second she called herself the True Queen Absolute. The magic saturated into the very ground of Irridessen had named her Queen on High with the current succession orders from her parents, and only Esmeray had the authority to change any future royal titles. And she was. Now. In front of everyone.
Even as she spoke the words, a sheen of glittering magic filled the air and collected around her, Irridessen itself acknowledging her authority.
Esmeray wasn’t here only to save Keerian and defeat Adara, she was here to takeeverything.
By discrediting Adara’s claim toeitherthrone, and banishing the titles of Queen on High and Lesser Queen.
There was now only one True Queen of Irridessen.
One.
And it was Queen Absolute Esmeray.
Sparrow stepped lightly to Esmeray’s side, shooting a glance in Lenna’s direction.
“Now,” Laurent whispered to Merrick’s left, “Lenna show the court now–while Esmeray has Adara distracted.”
With trembling hands, Lenna reached into her pocket and pulled out the Prism. A few beings closest to Lenna gasped as they lay eyes on the coveted cluster of quartz, whispers spreading like wildfire.The Oracle. The Oracle has come. The new Oracle has been activated by Moirai. Gods Bless the Oracle of Terramere.She closed her eyes, hurling her consciousness into the Prism. The grey stone began to faintly glow. Laurent shifted himself in front of Lenna, cutting off Adara’s view of her and the Prism. Merrick prayed to Moirai that those whispers thatthe Oracle had come to the Opal Palace would not reach Adara’s ears, that Esmeray would keep her too distracted to notice what was happening.
Lenna succeeded quickly. As Merrick watched, the beings closest to him twitched and flinched as the memory from the Prism began playing in their minds. Slowly, the entire court succumbed as Lenna pushed the memory of the King and Queen’s brutal murder at the hands of Adara into their minds.
