Iris wasn’t sure where things had gone so awry in her life. Searching the universe for Arthur Ward had been annoying at times, but it was also some of the most fun she’d ever had, visiting different planets and cultures across the cosmos and developing her magic. Finally meeting the man who’d filled her visions for so long had certainly been an interesting experience, and she still cringed every time she remembered how weird she’d acted.
Iris sighed. She’d just had to go and fall for the damn fool. That had never been a part of her plans, though in hindsight, she hadn’t had much of a plan when she’d run away from her father's palace all those years ago. She didn’t know when it had happened, or why, but for some strange reason or another, Arthur had stubbornly taken root in her heart.
And today, she was going to attend the trial that would decide whether he would live or die.
On paper, it was Solana Elantris who was being questioned for breaking the rules of the Origin Hunt and murdering Arthur Ward. Anyone important knew why they were truly meeting, though. An Ender's presence had been sensed on the day of his assassination, and the aura signature didn’t match the elder water dragon lord who’d woken up from his centuries-long nap.
Iris wasn’t sure how many people had figured out that her boyfriend was still alive, but The Stone of a Thousand Stories had started failing far earlier than expected. Now, however, she knew who was responsible. Lady Melania, the Bloodied Butcherer of Kenasis. Just thinking of the woman was enough to get her dizzy with rage.
The nobles' less-than-legal operations were an open secret amongst the upper echelons of power. It was just that those illegal experiments proved too useful in the war against corruption for anyone to do anything about it. That changed today. Still, Iris couldn’t stop the rising sense of helplessness growing in his chest.
Sure, Melania had accelerated the reveal of Arthur's continued survival, but it had only brought Solana’s trial forward by a few days. Iris could have all the time in the world, and she still wouldn't be able to find a way out of this for Arthur. I should have stopped him from making Wovan when I had the chance. Or at least gotten him some weaker phoenix blood. Why the hell did I have to get it refined? He didn’t ask for all that extra bullshit.
Iris mentally berated herself for being such a people-pleaser, even as she made her final preparations for the trial. Her father hadn’t replied to her messages yet, but he’d seen them. She could only hope that he wouldn’t fail her now. Iris stared at her reflection in the bathroom mirror. She looked like a mess, her hair frazzled, eyes sunken with fatigue and a chapped lower lip from how many times she’d chewed it.
She slapped herself on the cheeks. She wasn’t here for a beauty contest. Iris left the bathroom just in time to catch Ayesha leaving her room. Perfect timing was quite easy when you were a seer. Her best friend didn’t look too bad, but Iris could see the subtle sign of tension in her shoulder and the panic in her too-fast movements.
“Are you ready?” Ayesha asked.
“As ready as I can hope to be.”
Ayesha smiled weakly at her. “Let's get this farce over with then.”
They walked towards the door of their suite and opened it, revealing a wall of pitch black darkness. Eleven minutes past eleven. Stepping into it even a second earlier would’ve resulted in their demise, no matter how powerful they may be. That was how things worked in Hondar, tier 3 planet of judgment and justice. It was a world overflowing with death affinity, with only a single inhabitable place on its surface.
The Courtroom, a place where the dead came to be judged.
Their shared suite was one of 33 attached to the place for those who would attend the trial and see justice carried out. As the bride-to-be of the deceased, Iris had been invited to participate, and Ayesha had brought herself along for the ride despite how much the place terrified her. Taking a deep, steadying breath. Iris stepped into the darkness.
She arrived in The Courtroom and almost dropped to the floor as the weight of so much defensive magic descended on her. Ayesha wasn’t so lucky, and she had to awkwardly stumble back to her feet, surreptitiously wiping away the blood dripping from her nose. This was no place for the human woman, but Ayesha had always been too stubborn for her own good.
Iris sat down in her assigned seat and took everything in. The Courtroom was massive and positively drenched in magic, simultaneously appearing miles wide and the size of any ordinary courthouse that could be found on Earth. She took in the men and women already here, her heart rapidly sinking as her eyes wandered around the seats. Ayesha stiffened beside her, doing a much worse job at hiding her dismay. She’d seen him, too, then.
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The king of the ice elves was here. Not in person, of course; the tier 3 world would never support his presence, but the sight of his apparition was unmistakable. Duncan Ishfall, one of the few beings who stood above her father, a man who had attacked an Ender and changed its course, saving the lives of his people. A man like that, child of the Originator of his race, could only be here for one reason, and it wasn’t to see Solana punished.
Everyone else in The Courtroom was people she’d expected to see, those who’d been present at Solana’s arrest 11 days ago, The One Who Cuts looking as terrifying as ever. Lady Melania was there too, and the bitch met her glare with an infuriating smirk. Some people, Iris didn’t recognise, though she was certain they were nobility from planets closest to Earth. Giant's Bane knelt at the centre of the courtroom, chains of starforged steel binding her every limb.
The woman who’d dominate every space she was normally in looked small today, and Iris winced at all the bleeding cuts marring her flesh. Someone had crossed the line, and badly, but Iris was pretty sure they’d be getting away scot-free. The only person besides Solana on the centre stage was Lady Sleyca, and she looked positively miserable. For once, Iris actually felt sorry for the woman. She was ambitious to the extreme, and annoying to boot, but no one wanted the kind of responsibility she had today.
As the designated noble in charge of Earth’s integration, the job of leading this trial had fallen on her shoulders, an unenviable task to say the least. Iris wouldn’t be surprised if she was found dead in a ditch by the time the year was out.
Lady Sleyca's eyes darted around the room, focusing briefly on Iris. She took a deep breath. “The trial of Solana Elantris, condemned for unlawful murder of Originator Arthur Ward, is now—”
“Let us not waste any time,” a cold voice interrupted.
It was cold in a literal sense. The Courtroom’s temperature immediately dropped a few hundred degrees, and Lady Sleyca, the focus of that dreadful voice, was frozen solid in an instant. Iris flared her aura to protect herself and Ayesha from the now deadly temperatures. The magic of Hondar rushed into the room and struck Ishfall, the full weight of a tier 3 planet coming to bear. The elf-king had broken the rules, and he would pay for his hubris.
Unfortunately, rules didn’t apply to the strong. Ether froze in place, all forms of energy and motion suddenly juddering to an abrupt halt. That was what it meant to face the king of the ice elves.
“Giant's Bane will serve on the front lines for 27 years for attempting to murder Originator, Arthur Ward,” the man declared. No one questioned him.
“The Originator is to be killed immediately for breaking the rules of his station. Should anyone find fault with my verdict, let them speak now or forever remain silent.”
Iris’ fading hope finally spluttered and died. This was exactly what she’d feared. Her ether raged at the injustice of it all, her body doing its utmost best to move, to just speak. A single word to express her rage at the unfairness of it all.
Ishfall's magic didn’t even let her breathe.
It was her father's voice who answered for her. “Should you raise your hand against my daughter again, I will see your kind removed from the annals of history, down to the very last babe, remembered only as a cautionary tale.” Ezrial's words were dramatic as ever, but they contained none of the cheerful flair Iris had come to expect from her father. She’d never felt more relieved at hearing his voice, though, and she almost wept in joy.
Ishfall's face twisted in rage as Ezrial's magic washed his away. “And so the upstart finally comes out of hiding. Were you too afraid to come in person?” he mocked, “Or are you still struggling to unfreeze your limbs?”
“I did not come for the same reason most others didn’t,” Ezrial's voice sounded again, coming from all around them. “We cannot all be childish rule breakers like you.”
Ishfall grinned. “And who would stop me? You're millennium too early to start talking down to me, boy.”
“That would be me,” a sensuous voice declared, even as every drop of blood in Iris’ body suddenly halted in place. She would’ve sighed at how many powerhouses were coming out of the woodworks if she weren’t so terrified. The Queen of Blood had spoken, and so the living listened. At least their bodies did, every drop of blood in The Courtroom hanging on to her every word.
Even Ishfall wouldn’t move against her so easily. Not if he wanted to continue his existence amongst the ranks of the living. One of the engeli in the room started to spasm, blood pouring from his every orifice.
“Today truly is a day for surprises,” this time, the blood queen's voice was a deadly whisper. “To think I would see you again, Harvester, after so many centuries.” The engeli finally popped like an overfilled balloon, blood splattering across the courtroom. “The Harvester knows of our quarry. We must hurry,” the blood queen declared, before her presence faded away. Only silence was left in her wake, interrupted only by the sound of Sleyca's frozen body beginning to thaw.
Quarry? Iris wasn’t sure she liked the sound of that.
~~~
Arthur stood before the slain corpse of Samuel. He’d helped very little in the fight, and it was Maverick who’d dealt the final blow. In his hands, he held the man's corrupted core, the final ingredient to bring his plans to fruition. His final desperate gambit, the kind of insanity even the maddest of men would condemn.
"Are you sure you want to go through with this?" Vira asked. "You risk everything on the slimmest of possibilities.
Arthur nodded. "It is the only choice left to me."
Arthur was all out of options. Time was running out. Twelve hours until Armageddon. Would he live, or would he die? Arthur didn’t know. The only thing he was certain of was that he wouldn’t go down without a fight. Struggle to survive, or die trying. Surrendering to fate would be denying everything he was. In a thousand lifetimes, Arthur would make the same decision every single time.
It was time to stake his very soul.
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Etherious: Originator
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