Lucian watched as his people all dawned armor. Devlin shook his head, he was still under surveillance. Lucian turned his gaze to the shadows of his legitimate children. Both of their shadows had small heads peak out from time to time. Neolani had relayed three sperate phrases from Ashton… but even now the youth smiled coolly as he lay in his nest.
Leonard adjusted his sword belt, "Majesty, perhaps… Lady Alaina is going to retaliate?" He whispered under his breath so only his majesty and Duke Darnings could hear him. He kept his eyes focused on his armor, pretending he hadn't spoken at all, but both tensed.
Jaxon gripped the wheelchair, they were all out here, at first dawn, waiting for something. They didn't speak, the area was so quiet… everyone just waiting.
Ashton would periodically flick his foot as he hummed. Come my Beloved, soon we will meet, far too long, far too much grief. Ashton watched as the sun slowly rose, the group coming ever closer. Ahh, so many from the past, who could not let sleeping birds lie, they come with such grievance, as if the problem were I.
Leonard's dread increased as the sun rose… Beast Gods above… was the group Aaron traveled with really the problem? It had been hours… if they kept to schedule, Aaron would arrive any moment. Devlin had taken to drawing large circles around himself, with each hour he would draw a smaller one inside the previous. At first Leonard had been baffled, now he understood the circles were the relative distance of the spy closing in on Devlin.
Lucian closed his eyes as he saw Aaron on horseback, he was injured, one arm in a sling. One of the guards had bloody bandages around an empty shoulder socket. The last guard was probably in the cart… but what made Lucian clench his jaw was seeing Ashton leap up. Now the youth was sitting on the edge of his nest. Impassively watching the Isle delegation, mysterious cloaked person, and Aaron's group as if they were pigs to the slaughter.
Aaron jolted when their mute rescuer threw his arm out as he was about to dismount his horse and give his greetings to his liege. Aaron tensed as the figure dismounted, then removed the saddle from the horned horse beast. The horse nudged the man's hidden face, then turned to gallop away.
Aaron's heart clenched… the man had been so affectionate with the beast until now… that almost seemed like… a farewell. Aaron once again noted how the man had not even bothered to bring a single bag, so far all he had shown was an impressive control of fire spells, an ancient, enchanted sword, his bow and arrows.
Aaron saw the man look over the group, his gaze resting on the covered cage hiding the siren… then turn as if he were facing his death to walk toward the nest… to Ashton's small figure, before falling to his knees wordlessly.
Ashton tilted his head, "So long since we've met, your expression, regret? Did you not get all that you wanted? Your greed yet to sate? You've come far from your home, defeated your fate. Should you not sing? Where is that glee, from when we met last?"
Dalton felt his eyes burn from unshed teers. If there was one regret that had plagued him… it was betraying Fallon all those years ago. Dalton shoved down his emotions as he kowtowed to the familiar, yet unfamiliar youth. Unlike his memory of chestnut hair, warm brown eyes, healthy wheat skin, Fallon was now a pale, blonde youth. Even if the eye color had changed… that look hadn't.
Ashton hopped down from the nest, eyes narrowed as he circled Dalton, "Where is that fire? That once noble spark? That conviction you held, no matter hard? Your actions your own, yet now do you kneel? Where is your spine? Since when did you yield?" Ashton asked curiously, it was apparent that the years had not been kind. Time had worn down this once staunch man.
Dalton didn't raise his head, he'd rehearsed this conversation thousands of times, yet he'd always expected… rage… disdain, something other than… mild curiosity… "Your trust I betrayed, your heart I did take, my greed for your fire, my cowardly desires. I broke more than faith, when I defied fate." His voice was raspy from over hundred years of disuse. After his last clansmen died… he'd taken a vow of silence… only to be lifted as he begged Fallon's forgiveness.
Ashton tilted his head as he stared down at the hunched figure, "My pride it does prick, a once flame extinguished, you, who bore my heart, merely existing, was it not all that you hoped? All you had dreamed? The power of a beast, tamed at your feet?"
Neolani's heart clenched as she gripped Ashton's heart… there… had been… others? She'd suspected of course… but…
Alexei gently brushed his shoulder against his Regina, now wasn't the time for self-doubt. Ashton had chosen her, she would prove she was the right choice. No man, or beast could ever convince him otherwise.
Neolani hardened her expression as she watched the cloaked figure. Just because that man was an ungrateful wretch… didn't mean she wouldn't bring pride to Ashton.
Dalton closed his eyes as he knocked his head against the ground hard enough to draw blood, "My greatest regret, worst decision by far, was betraying your trust, for coveting your heart. I beg now only for death, released from this shell, to join my kin, even if only in hell." He'd tried… beast gods above he'd tried.
The morning after sacrificing Fallon on the alter… they had all started to burn… to rot. Whenever the sun touched their skin, it was like being douse in acid. Nothing could reverse the damage either. A seven-year-old girl's half melted, rotted face danced behind his eyes. Her begging to make the pain go away, praying for help… his baby sister… She'd been blind from birth, but Fallon had healed her after giving Dalton his heart. It had been the single most precious moment in his life… now he couldn't even remember that dreamlike smile, couldn't remember the years of laughter… When he thought of his sister, he saw her rotting face, only her screams haunted his nightmares.
She, even when blind, had always chased after him happily. Screaming, weeping, writhing for days until eventually… he'd cut her throat to end her misery. Dalton had been the first… and last person she ever saw. That had been the moment he nearly went mad. Cutting his own throat, exposing himself to the sun, stabbing himself in the heart, drowning, beheading, burning… no matter what, at dawns first light… he would rise.
Ashton tilted his head to the other side, "You once had my heart, it was yours to hold, now you wish for death, so you must return what you stole." Ashton watched as the hunched figure stiffened, soon familiar brown eyes looked at him with such… pain. Those brown eyes used to always smile… time changes many.
Dalton had expected his answer… he'd dug out Fallon's human heart… ha ha… how truly ironic. Dalton closed his eyes as he drew a short dagger out… trembling as he placed it over his chest, still watching Fallon's calmly curious expression. He knew the answer… but… after more than a hundred years… he had to hear it. "Fallon… did you… curse us?"
Ashton tilted his head, he'd seen the markings of course. "You once had a sister, one you so cherished, what would you do, to those who caused her to perish? In a manner so cruel, in an act so senseless, not even a body to recover, how would you enact justice?" Ashton had been killed hundreds of times… but it was rare for Ru to take matters into his own hands. Of course… so few had ever eaten his deceased body.
Dalton stared up at the small youth… ah… so Fallon had a sibling… not one born in the village, but one who had clearly been watching. Dalton looked down at his chest… then expertly started to carve out his own heart.
Ashton didn't flinch as he was sprayed in hot steaming blood. The moment the blood came into contact with the sunlight it started to sizzle. Still, Dalton pushed through the pain, judging from how he quickly stabbed through a rib, then scooped the dagger, this was not the first time he'd carved his heart out.
Aaron paled, he could only see from behind, but… it was obvious their savior… was gutting himself… without so much as a grunt… beast gods above… what madness was this?!
Caius watched from the nest, his Little Snack was so… calm… almost disinterested. Casius's tails flicked, this was clearly not the Beloved, of which his Little Snack awaited. Still, the previous heart barer… was not beyond corruption… what useful information. Caius didn't glance at the female, aiya, he might not have to do anything at all.
Dalton slowly pulled his heart out with his left hand. Beast Gods have mercy… the wet, meaty organ made his stomach clench as his vision spun. Ha, ha, he'd cut his heart out before, gutted himself, yet not once did he feel as if he grew used to the pain. No matter how relative pain was… didn't make it easier.
Ashton watched as Dalton presented his heart in trembling hands. The still beating organ glistened in the sun, rather than the sheen of blood, pieces of his shattered core were imbedded in the human heart. The flesh had even partially merged, but that's not what kept Dalton alive. Golden flakes were exposed as the pooling blood was absorbed by the earth.
Dalton forced down the groan as he looked from his cursed heart, to Fallon, he had no right to ask. Had no right to feel aggrieved, but as the more than 100 years of seeking death were finally coming to an end… he wanted to know.
Ashton tilted his head as Dalton opened his mouth only for blood to pour out. His convulsing body barely remained kneeling, consciousness was an ongoing battle. Yet Dalton waited, "You have something to ask?"
Dalton felt a surge of awareness, it was not blessing. The pain was magnified tenfold, but he was able to focus on Fallon's curious eyes, "Wha, why did, didn't you resist?" Not as the drugged him, not as they took his blood, not as they lay him on the alter, not even as he cut out Fallon's human heart…
Ashton blinked, "You once had my heart, in your guard it was kept, the choices you made, I swore to accept." Of course, he could count on one hand how many of his chosen had betrayed him, he was not omniscient. Dalton had seemed a decent spark to give his heart to at the time, but power corrupted, greed for eternal life. Eternal yes, but a pity… he was not undying.
Dalton choked on a gush of blood at the answer… ha ha ha… that's right. Fallon… was so biased. Dalton used his resolve to die, igniting the flames he'd stolen from Fallon for the last time. Bright red and silver flames burst around his heart… to his hands, up his arms.
Ashton closed his eyes as he raised his face to the sun, "What a pity, what a pity, once brilliant spark, ending so stark. At least now you're free, may death grant you mercy."
Jaxon watched in horror as the man was… crumbling away. Like a statue of sand, being blown away with each passing wind. But the ashes didn't go far… they swirled in front of Ashton, who had opened his eyes and held his hands out. The ash shifted to swirl like a tornado over his hands playfully.
Ashton kept his eyes locked with Dalton until there was only ash left. Ash, and the fragmented pieces of his shattered core. No need for the audience to see the journal that would be created. Ashton opened a rift to his library, letting the ash and core bits flow in, then closed the rift before the journal took shape.
Neolani's heart clenched, before Dalton had… burned away he'd mouthed to her a single warning… never betray him. The thought had never even crossed her mind… yet she'd… Neolani steeled her resolve. She would never betray Alphonse, Ashton. Fallon. No matter his identity, he was her savior. She would never be so ungrateful.
Ashton blinked, then turned a cool, disinterested gaze past Aaron to Isle delegations. Two isles, two delegations… how bold. "Aaron, I suggest you take your men to your emperor's side before you become collateral damage."
Aaron shivered as he jerked his head to his men, Ashton's voice may have been feather light… but his entire body was suddenly chilled to the bone.
Jaxon had never heard such a… calm declaration… it wasn't a threat, wasn't a request. As if a man hadn't just cut his heart out and burned himself to death… Ashton was moving on as if it were… a common occurrence.
"Brave little fish, so far from your seas, you come to my territory, yet hide from even the breeze. You dared to approach, now the topic to broach." Ashton called out. He'd expected another expendable pawn, but… this may be better.