As the king stared at Stargazer, the floating wraith continued, “He begs for careful judgment and forgiveness despite dark auspices, and his life is laid down for the foremost speaker and orchestrator present. Hear the collective concentrated council, trusting as once the king did under clearer, brighter skies of happiness and plenty. Remember, oh king, skies full of illumination. Remember.”

  The god-king, staring in apparent wonder, repeated in a murmur, “Remember…” He rose suddenly, which was not ‘standing’ but ‘floating’ for him. Still completely enthralled by Stargazer, he slowly lifted a finger to point at him. “Remember… WHAT?!” The sound was a deafening thunderbolt through the throneroom, shaking it enough to cause dust to stir. The guardsmen shifted around, hissing. The king, his pointed finger forming into a clenched, shaking fist, glared at Stargazer with his teeth bared. “My betrayal?! My doom?! And what was foretold of it in the heavens, Brother of Stars? What did you see and speak in warning?”

  Stargazer opened his mouth but quickly closed it. He bowed his head, closing his eyes once more, whether in shame, sadness, or both, it wasn’t clear.

  The king laughed suddenly. Cackled. A few of the guardsmen tittered with him. Sammy had heard such laughter before, or similar. It reminded her disturbingly of the Archer that had shot her through the heart. The laugh of the completely mad.

  Hysterical, the god-king continued almost casually, “Apparently unfounded trust. Yet here you are offending me with your presence. Would that you have stayed forgotten for your own sake! Instead, you bring Invaders, Defiers, Thieves, Snake Friends — Destroyers deciding for me the fate of my own devout! And you would beg forgiveness this way?! Are you mad? Your king pronounces this: you-”

  “Stop it!” Azure, her finger pointing up at the god-king, did something in that spiritual realm space. She grabbed and twisted it; she rang it like a bell. A ripple ran through reality and through all present as her voice echoed through the hall with her command. It made everyone freeze. Sammy felt a cold shiver run through her.

  Somehow, Azure made herself the focal point that everything in that micro-reality slightly bent toward. Sammy wasn’t sure she understood what she’d done any more than the rest of them. Expression fierce, the Naugite continued, “Stop acting like a child with broken toys and act like a ruler!” Her breathing was heavy, skin flushed somewhat more purple from her anger. “Come to your senses or we’ll beat them back into you!”

  What’s gotten into her?

  The god-king and the assembled wraiths stared, completely stunned. For a wonder, they weren’t attacking from that offense.

  Azure, suddenly looking self-conscious, dropped her finger, but she didn’t stop glaring. “I am the only one to commit the violation you keep charging. With the dagger at my belt, I sent your creatures on to the next world. They were nearly mindless, driven insane in your service, and deserved the release you refused to give them. I don’t accept your judgment of me for it, nor those in this party! I did what you should’ve done, if you were not reduced to a cruel psychopath all your servants feared to even approach! Spare us your babbling nonsense. Treat with us now or we’ll do this the hard way.”

  Next to her, Orswyth appeared generally unmoved, his eyes hard. He was well poised to act, with his staff in both hands, glancing once at Sammy. He mentally sent, “I feel confident we have a shot, Your Majesty. It will be daunting for me alone with distance to cover, but I will be ready. See that the others protect me at all costs when I concentrate.”

  “That’s my kind of speech,” Athos muttered.

  The god-king had been struck silent. If anything, he was spellbound and fascinated by her interruption. Almost dumbly, he studied her and said, “You are blue. Blue of skin…”

  Azure appeared puzzled. She opened her mouth as if to reply, but no words came out.

  The giant god-king floated forward down over the steps, his brows furrowing hard as he studied Azure closer and closer. He swept down even from the steps and the red carpet, skirt brushing the marred stone patterns the party occupied. The veritable wall of wraiths parted away smoothly to give the giant room to approach. Close.

  This is perfect! Orswyth needs to be close for what he has to do.

  The god-king’s eyes remained enthralled with Azure as he finally stopped before her, towering over all but the angelic form of Gabriel, who watched him like a hawk, physically poised to act. Waytaker was no different, though her face looked like someone resigned to their doom in comparison.

  Such loyal allies, even to strike their own god, and likely in futility. We can’t let them down.

  Azure looked up at the giant wraith-like being as if at a puzzle, entirely lost for words.

  “Who are you really, phantom?” the god-king asked, the milkiness of his eyes not hiding the intensity of his gaze. Ice blue irises within — once upon a time, at least. “The tongue cannot speak a framework of lies to me, can it? Held. Hiding mysteries behind your eyes, folded interstices in your soul. Signs within you call to me… grown from untold aeons, they writhe for remembrance, they weep and gnash…” He lifted his free arm, and from out of the tattered sleeve of an ancient, royal robe a great, gray hand was offered.

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  Azure blinked at it and then at him, hesitating…

  “He’s distracted,” Orswyth sent to Sammy with strong ‘let’s do this’ energy. “Vulnerable. Your call, Goddess, but this is perfect.”

  Sammy didn’t hesitate. It had cost her too many times in the past, and she was trying to help the poor bastard. To all those connected to her in the party, she sent a mental broadcast, “Do it, Orsywth! Everyone, protect him and be ready to pre-empt attackers!”

  Orswyth stepped forward as his eyes flared out with blinding, bright light — he swept up the Staff of Vision in both hands and slammed it into the floor.

  Azure cried out, “No! Wait-”

  Light blossomed from Orswyth’s head, hit the Staff of Vision’s mirroring crystals, and flared out in every direction at once. Time slowed as the throne room was caught in super-fast flashing strobes.

  The light began to focus itself on the god-king, forging a branch from Orswyth to him. “God with no name,” a greater, deeper voice uttered from Orswyth’s lips, “king without a crown, man who buried himself; dear Lost Child, the truth is not in you.”

  The giant’s face was a rictus as he turned, all-in-all appearing scoured by the light hitting him. He might’ve wanted to recoil, but he was caught. Around him, the wraiths were fully recoiling and holding up their hands, averting their eyes. For whatever brief point in time, they’d all been soundly stunned and awed.

  Sammy immediately did the most logical thing she could think of to ensure stalling any interruptions: she cast Force Wall with [Tweak Spell: Quicken] for immediate protection, and made it into a box around just Orswyth and the giant, which was not too difficult thanks to the facilitating positioning. A translucent barrier blossomed around them.

  “Watch out for anyone casting at it!” Samantha sent out as another broadcast. “Anyone who even thinks about dispelling that gets tackled or something!” Meanwhile, she put her giant tentacle monster on guard duty, so it positioned multiple arms around her new box.

  Azure looked almost pained by what transpired. She grabbed the horns on her head in both hands and shook in anxiety. “Was this necessary?! I think I-I…” She trailed off, shaking her head again and making a sound almost like a whimper.

  She is so off since she’s been here…

  Athos, Gabriel, and Waytaker simply remained poised, ready to act but unwilling to strike offensively before the wraiths went hostile. Gabriel called, “No one is hurting any of us even on their first strike! My shield will buy us time.”

  Stargazer was conjuring some sort of protective spell again, and Linguist was… rubbing his chin and observing.

  Honestly, he’s done more than I thought he would in a combat as it is, during the last one. He’s fine. Deduce away, bro!

  The mental effect Orswyth was conducting rapidly focused on the god-king and intensified, going so bright their heads became silhouettes. The god-king screamed, a horrifying howl that caused the realm to quake with great tremors. Dust cascaded, and bits of stone fell from the ceiling. Multiple cracks caused fracturing.

  The inner entity of Orswyth continued as calm as could be. “Do you yet wish to wallow in hatred and ignorance? You who first blessed the world with sagacity and erudition. Will you lie down and die in your corruption? I offer you the scepter of freedom, I offer you the swan song of old victory. Will you take it, King of Before? Does there remain yet a seed in the land of the dead? To accept truth requires the final, darkest pain, but in it, you will finish with the gracefulness of reason you and your people deserve.”

  The god-king writhed and jerked as he screamed, and the light came to its most intense, like a beam from Orswyth to the giant, mind to mind.

  The wraiths regained their senses. But not one of them brandished arms; not one of them looked away from their king. They watched on, awed and amazed; enthralled. Soberly, uttering no feral snarls or grunts, like true sentinels, they waited.

  “Take the hand to heal you, oh tortured bygone!” Orswyth called, the Staff of Vision almost singing with the energy beaming through it. Now, a little bit of the human vessel bled into the words. “Come out from the endless cyclone of darkness and madness, open your eyes to the light of days you made bright with hope! Your final marks are yet to be made, your buried walls yet to meet — Open! Skies! Again!”

  Sammy was as in awe as the rest gathered at the inspirational energy dripping from the words. Almost as an afterthought, she brushed her feathers of Fate through those final moments of struggle. The wiseman had irrevocably changed the god-king, that was undeniable, rousing an inner fire of his own will in support, but the countering divide — the will of an insane god in his own realm — was nearly unmovable. That he could even shove it at all…

  The key was all him. To find and buttress a demolished, nearly lost persona deep within. His department, but I feel the grain of hope I can exploit now.

  The Goddess of Fate did as planned: she utilized [Alter Fate] to force failure in resistance and ensure a much more satisfying and perfect victory, in tandem with The Hermit’s insurance of something worth preserving afterward. It was the thing they’d been unsure of.

  No longer.

  A mind was healed. The inhuman howl diminished into the pain of someone much closer to human. Skin regained its color, and a little more luster returned to his form. A floating skirt lowered to the floor.

  The entire realm warbled and warped. Shadows lifted and dust vanished. The top part of the throne room ripped apart to reveal a clear, blue sky and a beaming sun.

  Orswyth’s illuminating beam finally winked out suddenly, and he fell to a knee, entirely exhausted. The god-king collapsed to the floor, his screams entirely spent. His royal guardsmen fell into varying states of strain as well. Stargazer, Waytaker, and Linguist did not seem diminished, instead watching on in wonder.

  Waytaker was beaming, and soon she began to laugh, thrusting her hands and staff up in joy. “Under bright, new skies, a true king awakes!”

  Much cleanse, very Gandalf, Orswyth.

  Next Chapter...

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