Light on the Rocks, Shadows in the Cracks Part 2

-Aurelia-

Despite my qualms about the lack of sunlight in this kingdom, the palace was a beautiful piece of structural engineering, and perhaps one of the oldest buildings that’s still in use on the continent.

Countless statues made of the many materials that could be dug up from the earth lined the expansive road to the palace gates, many depicting the goddess of earth, in all her overabundant glory.

My crass companion let out a low whistle as she eyed one particular copper statue, one portraying the goddess holding up a large mass, all carved from one massive vein of copper. Her modesty was only covered by convenient placement of copper hanging from the overhead mass. “That’s some good quality copper. Much better than what we got for my da- my father.”

“Indeed. The gold for my goddess is sourced from this kingdom as well. Though we carve the statues ourselves to ensure perfection.”

“Really? We’ve always just bought it ready-made. I’ll have to look into that later…”

The guards around us, all young men and women, even those stationed at the palace, all of them seemed to get more and more irritated. And if I could sense it, I could only imagine what Fulgora was experiencing. Her tail was raised high, almost stiff, and her ears were twitching around faster than I had seen before.

I had no experience calming down a demihuman, and I found that rather unacceptable. When I have some time, I must research the subject more.

For the time being, all I could do was place my hand on her shoulder, and try to imagine what Gray would do to defuse a situation.

Hmm… perhaps not…

The palace was an incredible showing of artistic talent, each room being constructed using a different style or material. Walls of a clever application of greened metals mixed with brighter stones. Or intricately designed metalwork making a feast for the eyes.

“I’ve been told that each room was given as a personal project to each king, and seeing them now, I can see the various artistic touches each room has.” I lectured Fulgora who seemed a little calmer now.

“Only kings? What about queens?” She gave a sly smirk, as if she was pointing out some mistake.

As usual, she was wrong. “While there are queens within the history of this kingdom, the kings chosen to decorate a room are the lovers chosen by the goddess herself. Their child may take the throne, but they are never chosen.”

“Shows what you know…” One guard muttered under her breath, the words would have died out in the air if the palace wasn’t designed to facilitate the travel of sound.

As we were moved through the palace, more guards seemed to move from their positions in order to follow us. By the time we reached the throne room, over three dozen guards were ushering us in, and blocking off the large stone doors behind us.

The throne room was the most simply designed room we’ve seen in the palace. Curved walls and designs to help amplify sound with the room. Even the stone doors we entered through were designed to either help sound leave the room if open, or keep it within the throne room if closed.

At the top of a small flight of stairs were thrones made from stone. And considering how they blended in with the stone wall behind them, I believed that they were drawn from the earth through magic.

“Princess Aurelia, and Princess Fulgora. How nice of you two to finally visit.” The man sitting on the throne, a young adult, with short brown hair and brown eyes. Unlike everyone else in the kingdom, his skin was darker, another trait inherited from his mother.

He wore thick metal plate armor, unadorned and undecorated. The only color other than the dark steel in his outfit was the brown and golds of his kingdom’s colors, shown in the undercloths of his armor. Said clothes were barely visible except for a tailcoat.

A large metal hammer rested against his throne, and a chisel as long and as thick as a leg rested on the armrest opposite the hammer.

“Prince Ferris.” I spoke up first, offering a polite bow, and with a quick nudge, encouraged Fulgora to do the same. “Where is your father, we need to speak with him about matters of grave importance.”

“Oh, grave importance, you say? As grave as the shipments of grain you’ve failed to deliver for my people? Or as grave as stopping the water flow my country needs for both living and construction purposes? Please, be more clear, we’re all friends here, right?” The Son of Stone spoke in a mocking tone, not hiding the venom in his voice.

Fulgora and I shared a look, both confused by what he was talking about. “Look, if you’re mad about the water, I didn’t cut you off. I reduced it back to the previous levels. You still have plenty of water for construction.” I was pleasantly surprised to see Fulgora try to de-escalate a situation.

“Is that what you think!” He slammed his hand into the armrest of his throne, a sound echoing through the room. “My people need that water, now more than ever! With her kingdom providing not even half the food promised, our only way to eat is to work even harder! Which we need water for!”

“Hold on,” I approached, trying to make some sense of this. “We’ve been sending you the food in exchange for metals and precious gems. Are you telling me that the shipments haven’t been reaching your kingdom?”

“NO!! THEY HAVE NOT!” The room shook with his scream as Ferris stood up. “Maybe ONE shipment in five will arrive! And that was before this month, where we haven’t even received ONE shipment! Care to explain that away, princess? Where is the food my people deserve!”

Due to this whole ordeal with the Trifecta, I hadn’t had time to stop back home and review any reports, so if food wasn’t being delivered, I wouldn’t have been able to read the reports.

With the attacks on our farms, our crop production rate has decreased somewhat, specifically around the southeastern area, which does border all three of our kingdoms. But my father and his ministers would have been taking care of this if it was a problem.

Living primarily underground, the people of Almastia relied on the food produced by the nations around it. So a lack of food is a significant problem.

“Hey!” Fulgora clearly did not like being yelled at. “If you’re so upset about the crops, then why is your kingdom making golems to attack her farms?!”

I wanted to chide Fulgora for such a statement. We weren’t positive if the royalty here was behind the golem manufacturing process, just that it was happening within the Earth Kingdom. To suggest an ally as a traitor to not only their allies, but our pantheon, was a grave insult.

But Ferris didn’t deny the accusations. “Because at least the Trifecta are feeding us! All we have to do is build their army, and my people won’t starve!”

Any good will I had to this man faded in the light of this reveal. My hand gripped around my staff tighter as my eyes began to glow brighter. “So you admit to blasphemy?! Assisting the Pariah Gods? Has your sense abandoned you?! What does your goddess have to say about that?!”

“No one knows!” Ferris threw his hands in the air. “Unlike you privileged sorts, we can only speak to our goddess once a year at the festival! Because she’s too busy keeping our caves up and our people safe to talk to us!”

“Even with the righteous toil your goddess undergoes, her voice is above our own! Not even holding up the mountain range itself would prevent communication with her worshippers!” I point the head of my staff at him, accusingly. “Or do you suggest that even the magic of your people has faded since the last festival?”

“It’s not our magic that has faded! It’s our voices! Our very prayers! The old man and his followers were drowning their voices with the sounds of their instruments! A song-prayer should be as clear as a speech! There’s no need for such unnecessary additions, no matter how hard the old-timers cling to ‘traditions.’”

“So that’s why those singers were attacked in the city.” Fulgora snapped. “You’re attacking your own people for a difference in prayer? What is wrong with you?! Sure, we get people who pray to da- my father loudly, but it’s still a perfectly valid prayer, even if unpreferred!”

“Don’t compare our songs to your chants, mutt!” He snarled. “The sounds of their instruments echo everywhere in this city, drowning out our voices! Our prayers! This can not stand!” Ferris slowly picked up his hammer and chisel, standing at the top of the stairs looking down at us.

I wanted to de-escalate, but now that I knew his actions caused the death and suffering of my people, I already found myself ready to fight. There likely was a way through this through dialogue, a way to make him see the light of truth, but it was too late. Good people died, and I could never tolerate that.

My body began glowing as I readied my staff. Next to me, Fulgora cracked her knuckles, and grabbed her necklace.

Raising my staff in the air, I spoke loudly. “Oh Goddess, grant me the strength to bring judgement down on these sinners.” My nine glowing golden halos appeared around me, flooding the room with radiant light.

Raising her necklace to her lips, Fulgora whispered. Four crackling halos of lightning appeared around her limbs.

We shared a brief glance, and to my surprise, Fulgora nodded with her toothy grin. I returned the nod, tightening my grip on my staff as I prepared to fight.

“I see.” Ferris said, brows furrowed. “Even now, you choose conflict. I would have let you leave if you swore to never return, but now, I must defend my nation against yours. So bring it. I’ll make you pay for every life you make suffer.” He hefted his hammer over his shoulder, and the soldiers around us began drawing their swords.

The prince’s voice became louder, sigils of brown earth divinity appearing around his body as his words echoed through the room. “Do you not see, my brothers and sisters?! The hypocrisy of the Golden Crown?! They promote ideals of bonds and peace, but when people rebel, where are those ideals? If they strike us down, will they replace our traditions with their own, like they did to the Fire Kingdom to the north?!”

Discordant yells came from the guards, bouncing badly around the room. Fulgora’s ears flattened as she winced.

“Is their goddess perfect, while ours is inferior?! Are our beliefs not allowed?! Are we not allowed to discover our goddess’ will ourselves? Or must others get involved in our affairs, when they themselves are hurting our people?!”

The yells were a bit more in unison, but still rather discordant.

“No, I say! We shall fight tooth and nail for every punishment they enact! Our allies are those who help us, not those who-”

I had enough, flaring my power to fill the room with the goddess’ light. No more time for dialogue, now was the time to fight. Fulgora would be fine with her other senses.

While everyone was blinded, I moved to rush towards the prince, only for the light around us to begin fading, motes of pure darkness flickering in the shadows generated by my light.

I only just had enough time to raise my staff to block a swing at my neck by a man in dark furs. His other knife went for my side, but I flew backwards before it could do more than scratch my armor.

Now, the goddess’ light had faded to no more than a candle against the night, I could see dozens more assailants having appeared in the room, thieves and rogues alike, all blessed by Shadows. Nearly a hundred foes now surrounded us.

And at the base of the stairs, their back to Ferris, was the Chosen Champion of the god of shadows.

He looked unharmed from Gray’s report a scant few days ago, but his right arm was missing, replaced with an unarmored one of pure shadow that absorbed the light I was giving off, casting a powerful shadow behind it that seemed to erase everything it covered from sight.

“Princess…” The man snarled, stalking forward slowly. “Though I wish I could be tearing apart that gray-haired abomination, tonight I’ll settle for ending your life.”

“No one talks about my friend like that!” Fulgora and I yelled in unison as we threw ourselves into the fray.