The King Trials 2: Beyond.

Primus Kelan P.O.V

My eardrums fracture at the cataclysmic sound of Aurora’ screaming. Black veins protrude through her skin; throbbing, tributaries of insoluble, ill black that spreads like the venom that it is, festering, fissures cracking its way from her forehead, down to her throat, arms and stomach.

Suddenly she falls silent. I dash to her side, lifting her head up into my grasp. Her eyes still before they flutter close, a faint breath trickles out of her mouth, a lone tear slips from her eye as her last heartbeat ebbs into emptiness.

“You cannot—” my voice breaks, a sob catching in my throat. “You cannot leave me. I know I have earned your hatred, but I will spend the rest of my infinite days to make amends, not to exonerate my sins but to win your amnesty. You are my north star, my light.”

“I love you, more than life itself, greater than length of the cosmos.” I lay my forehead on hers. “For you are my universe. Come back to me.”

But she does not. The cracks that split her skin are like crevices that riven through the face of a crag. Like she was shattered, broken in pieces like a porcelain doll and poorly put back together again bit by bit. Something wets my face, a scald searing the back of my eyes. When was I wounded? I raise my hand to dab it on my check to see the transparent liquid on my fingers. Tears. I have not shed a tear in epochs.

I can no longer feel her. Though she is right before me. I cannot sense her.

Everything inside of me—what is left—profound grief, tears me asunder. A dark rage burns where a heart used to beat. I look at Erulis who has a sympathetic look veiled over her face, eyes finding the ground.

“Fix it.”

She gawks back at me. “I cannot—”

“Fix it!”

“My apologies,” she says mournfully. “As you see, there are limits to even my capabilities.”

No!

“Or perhaps you need proper motivation.”

I set my sight on her daughter. Before she can draw breath and realise my intent. I am behind the girl with my arm hooked around her neck and the other with my sword drawn and the tip harmlessly planted on the small of her back.

“You will heal her, do whatever you must just bring her back to me,” I seethe ferally. The girl thrashes futilely, weeping pitifully. “For the sake of your daughter.”

The shaman outreaches her hand to me threateningly.

“Try it. Whatever magic you possess, you better hope it is faster than I.”

Not willing to take the risk. She lowers her arm to her side.

“Heal her!” I bellow, my grip tautening around the neck of the girl, her obnoxious cries smothered, replaced with strenuous gagging.

Erulis raises her hands placatingly, her dark eyes glossy. She sinks to her knees, clasping her hands to me in a prayer-like gesture, begging me as one would plead to their deity for salvation.

“I am a healer, but I am no miracle worker. Her wounds were too grave, in tangent to the evil inside of her, she couldn’t endure. I cannot defy death, she is dead.”

I roughly jerk the girl upright. “Then your daughter will join her unless you bring her back to me. Now!”

“Primus Kelan!” She shrieks frantically. “I know you. I saw your devotion to the Crown. I know you are good being, an honourable soldier. I know you will not harm her.”

She knows me? None cannot begin to fathom what I am!

Fury chars my insides. Without hesitation, I drive the blade through the girl, and she bristles with her chest poised upwards. Tears burst from her mother’s eyes. She releases an anguished scream, crying hysterically. At least know she knows a morsel of my agony. I throw the girl’s slacken body to the ground and she smacks the floor with a thud, curling into a ball shape, clutching her stomach that quickly bathes her in a pool of her own blood.

Erulis speeds past me to reach her daughter. I limp over to Aurora.

I hold her face and rest my forehead on hers, closing my eyes. This is my eternal punishment to make up for my eternal transgressions. After all that I have done, all that I truly am, it is everything that I deserve. But my retribution cost this world something that it needed.

Something that it needed to believe in.

My brow knits together. A small orb of luminescent light shines through the darkness of my sealed eyes. I peel them open, and I snap straight. Aurora. A glow ignites her skin. The fissures of black brim with golden light like a rushing river, glided lightning struck through her and her golden radiance only augments until she becomes her own sun. The venomous black engulfed by the gold brilliance, swirling essence emanate from her, wisps like the smouldering cinders of a fire carried away by the wind. She is so luminous, the incandesce so bright I step away and shield my eyes with my hand at the sheer intensity.

An ember rising from the ashes of death. A rebirth.

The illumination begins to wane enough for me to witness this spectacle of light as it thaws back inside of her. Then her chest inflates like life pumps itself within her, a divine breath blown into her nostrils.

I slant closer. My fingers sift through her strands that are still a stark ebony.

“Aurora?” I say softly.

On call. Her eyes snap open.

THE END