LOCATION: THE CRUCIBLE, 100TH FLOOR
PLANET: LAPIS DIVINUS, ORION LUMINARY INSTITUTE
YEAR: ? | DAY: ?? | TIME: ??
The throne in Caerwyn Castle was more comfortable than Kaela had expected. Both the physical chair itself and the metaphorical weight of the scepter in her hand.
She thought back to the day she had arrived in this place.
Ushered into this very room, then unceremoniously sent away without so much as an escort, as a pawn to end a war that both sides had grown weary of continuing.
What surprised Kaela the most was how happy she had been in Seraph’s Hold. Lucien’s family had genuinely welcomed her into the fold, and the staff of Seraph Castle treated her with sincere respect, not with feigned patronization.
She spent her days looking forward to training with the best warriors in the land, and spent her evenings with Lucien.
And all of it had been so unexpectedly blissful.
She looked out from the throne at the giant audience hall.
It was an utter mess. The abomination had taken down one of the columns that held up that magnificent ceiling. Most of the wooden benches, which had been bolted to the floor, were cracked and broken, strewn about everywhere.
What was ironic was that Carmina’s dark magic had been so powerful that it had actually done the gruesome job of cleaning the room of all traces of blood, save for the one drop ten feet away that was already drying as Kaela sat.
Thinking of Carmina, Kaela decided to check on her.
Rowan had been approaching the throne to discuss a plan, when Queen Kaela popped out of existence.
He had seen her do that when she took Alek Velthorn’s head, and caught it from his peripheral vision while he fought for his life against the enormous monstrosity, but this was the first time it happened right in front of him.
One moment she was there, and the next she was gone. Vanished with only a faint scent of ozone left behind.
Kaela felt the aether envelop her. She stood from the gray throne and didn’t need to look far to find the banshees.
They were, incredibly, still feasting on Carmina’s bloated corpse.
Kaela shuddered. It was macabre and disgusting.
But victory was sweet nonetheless.
The banshees stopped feeding the moment they noticed she had entered their space.
They all turned and bowed to her.
Suddenly, a thousand voices entered her mind at once. It was like a cacophony, yet the voices spoke in perfect unison.
“Kaela Sirova. You have provided us with a great boon today. This vital energy will sustain us for decades. Once you exit the fabricated construct, return to us and receive your reward.”
They bowed once again, then silently turned back to Carmina and continued feeding on her.
Kaela returned to the throne room. She still felt queasy from the sight, but the irony wasn’t lost on her.
The very life essence that Carmina had worked so hard to amass, control, ingest, and utilize was now feeding Kaela’s new… allies?
Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.
Could they even be called that?
It seemed so.
They now bowed to her.
Allowed her to pass through the aether without issue.
They helped her defeat the most powerful opponent she had ever seen before.
And now they were promising a reward in return for the boon she had provided.
“Your Highness?”
Kaela shook free from her thoughts and focused. Rowan was standing in front of her.
“Rowan,” Kaela said. “You have done the crown an incredible service. I shall see you are rewarded.”
Rowan shook his head.
“It’s nothing, my Queen. We need to—”
“We need to clean this up, and prepare for a proper coronation.”
She turned to the Scout Leader, who was working with the others to clean the room.
“Please get a report to my husband, to King Alaric, and to King Galen. We are safe now, and we need to discuss joining Seraph’s Hold, Goldenvale and Caerwyn under a single banner.”
“Yes, Your Highness,” the Scout Leader said. “I will go myself.”
Kaela raised a hand.
“No, send someone else. I need you here. We are going to form a joint intelligence network that will combine the resources of three kingdoms into a single entity. We can never allow a tragedy like this to befall us again.”
She turned to Rowan.
“Please get me a report on Caerwyn City. How are the mercenary companies doing ridding us of the scum from Hillstead?”
“It will be done, Your Highness,” Rowan said, bowing deeply and running out of the hall.
Kaela leaned back and stared at the intricate artwork high above her on the ceiling. She smiled for the first time in weeks.
Four days later, Kaela received King Alaric, Queen Emmanuelle, and Prince Lucien from Seraph’s Hold. King Galen and his entourage from Goldenvale had joined them on their journey.
The throne room had been cleaned and restored to its original condition.
When they were ushered into the audience hall, Kaela stood on the dais to the side of the throne. She thought it was more proper than receiving them with her sitting on it.
She bowed deeply.
“Your Highnesses, I wish to welcome you to Caerwyn Castle. We have much to discuss.”
Alaric announced that he had been planning to step down as King and hand the reins of Seraph’s Hold to his son. He had decided this was the perfect time to coronate Lucien as King, and Kaela as Queen.
King Galen had an idea of his own.
“I think I will echo my oldest friend’s sentiment.”
He turned to the young couple.
“Rather than uniting our kingdoms under an alliance, what do you say to joining all three of our countries together?”
Alaric laughed.
“With my brilliant statesman of a son as King and my fierce Lioness of a daughter as Queen?”
“Yes,” Galen said. “Exactly.”
Alaric looked at Kaela and his son for a long time. Emmanuelle just stood by, smiling.
Kaela smirked. This whole thing felt rehearsed. They had been planning this all along.
She let it happen anyway.
“Two strongholds, one to the east and one to the west,” Alaric said. “An agricultural powerhouse in between with one of the busiest and wealthiest trading ports in the realm. No one would dare attempt anything like this again. I suppose the only question left is what to name it.”
Kaela thought for a moment.
A seraph was an angelic being.
The name Caerwyn evoked a white or pure fortress.
And Goldenvale’s meaning was clear enough.
“How about Aurelion?”
Both Kings turned toward her.
“Tell us more,” Alaric said.
“Aurelion contains all of the concepts of our three kingdoms into one word. Gold is implied. It has a celestial tone and gravitas that covers both Seraph’s Hold and Caerwyn.”
Lucien smirked.
“It even has the word ‘lion’ in it. I think it’s perfect!”
It took nearly a month to arrange, but they held official coronations in all three palaces across the newly formed country.
They started in Caerwyn, holding a grand celebration at the palace and throughout the land. The royal coffers, restored with the riches confiscated from the Velthorn estate, covered all of the costs.
The people rejoiced to see their own Princess being named Queen.
Kaela, Lucien, and the others then traveled to Goldenvale and held an even lusher ceremony there, including a dinner created by the best chefs in the realm.
Then they ended in Seraph’s Hold, where King Alaric and Queen Emmanuelle happily crowned their son and daughter-in-law as the leaders of the newly formed Aurelion.
Kaela and Lucien left the celebration deep in the night, returning to their private chambers in the castle.
Lucien looked Kaela in the eyes, and brushed a strand of hair aside.
“I am so proud to have you by my side, my Lioness.”
He kissed her, then added: “My Queen.”
Kaela kissed him back, and they talked for hours about the future of Aurelion.
She fell asleep with a genuine smile on her face. It was the happiest she could remember being at any point in her life.
A few hours later, her bladder pulled her back from her dreams. She took one look at Lucien, and left to go to the privy.
She entered the room and finished her business, then turned to leave.
In the hallway just outside, a portal had appeared. Purple and gold undulated in its center.
Kaela just stared at it, unmoving, as tears formed in her eyes.