Rooftop Showdown

“In the lower market district there is a merchant that goes by the name of Domingo. Publicly he mostly deals with the trade of textiles and clothing, but I know that he has deep ties with human trafficking organizations. He also has a thing for little boys.”

Atop his floating castle, Count Telantra said so to the princess standing behind him. Noting that he didn’t hear a response from her amidst the strong winds, the Count continued.

“Naturally, this would make it extremely easy for your servant to infiltrate Domingo’s operations and kidnap him… Well, killing him would be easier, but, as I understand it, Adam does not want more blood on his hands,” he said, turning around to face the princess. Then he made his tone more casual. “I actually approached him before this, you know? He really is perfect for the job, but no matter how much I offered to pay him, he refused to loan his services to me without the direct approval of his master–”

“As he should have,” interjected the princess. “Don’t covet another’s servant. You should know better than to act carelessly like that.”

“Yes. Yes, of course. Truly, you did a remarkable job training him– Honestly couldn’t have done better myself. That boy is so… reliant on you.”

Raya frowned at the word Telantra had emphasised, “I did nothing of the sort of thing you are insinuating, Count. I’m not nearly as villainous as you.”

Telantra raised an eyebrow at that remark, but decided to wait for Raya to continue on her own.

Eventually she did.

“It was just how things ended up…” she said, looking at a patch of weathered stone to her left. “I think it’s just in his nature to be like that. He lacks ambition and purpose, but has great talent and will… and a few quirks too. I happened to find him at a moment where he had been particularly lost, so it is only natural that he would rely on me as he does. He doesn’t have the ability to find happiness on his own. It’s not that he can’t move on from his past, but he won’t let himself do so. Like he doesn’t believe he deserves it. So without me, he would likely… uh, I don’t really know… but it would be bad.”

Telantra watched as the wind played with Raya’s hair. Her pretty face frowned thoughtfully, but he couldn’t tell whether that was because she was pretending not to know what Adam would do if he lost his master, or if she had just realized that, accidentally or not, she had manipulated Pax to be reliant on her. Whether she admitted it or not, she had taken advantage of Adam. Just having such a good profile on the young boy’s psyche made Telantra reevaluate Raya in his mind a little bit.

But really, there was no way for him to know what her true thoughts were.

Eventually, she turned the conversation back to him: “I might not be completely innocent when it comes to this situation, but at least I don’t manipulate people the way you do– You with those those heinous eyes of yours…”

“Ah, so you know about the Eyes of Fate Prying. Did you brother tell you, or do all the dragons know of this already?”

“Hah, though my brother was a genius, you overestimate his talents. It was my father who told me of your magical eyes, alongside a warning to be wary of you.”

Telantra smiled at that as Raya took a step closer to him.

“You say you wish to borrow my servant. Then, in exchange, I want you to tell me what those eyes of yours see when they look at me. I’ll help you fulfill whatever conditions are needed for their activation.”

“No need, I already used my Eyes on you long ago. Activating them again wouldn’t show me anything different unless you died,” His eyes narrowed as he leaned in close enough to whisper in her ear. “I saw you seated upon a throne of broken swords. You hoisted your grandfather’s head to a crowd of tens of thousands. Their cheers could be heard from miles away yet your face betrayed no sign of emotion. You're alone. The crown is so heavy that it’s completely wiped any light from your eyes and numbed your mouth into a permanent grimace.”

Raya said nothing, but her jaw was clenched and her hands were balled into fists. Seeing this, Telantra stood up straight and continued:

“Here, I’ll even throw your servant’s fate in, free of charge. Yes, his fate was particularly hard to see. It took me multiple tries of bottoming out my mana to get anything coherent. All I saw was a well. Unfathomably deep. Deep enough to bore through planets and yet only holding a layer of blood high enough to reach your ankles. But that wasn’t to say the well didn’t hold anything else. No, it contained scenes of horrors I could never attempt to put into words alongside ideas dangerous enough to spawn true madness with little more than a glimpse. Had I not protected myself with everything I had, I may have succumbed to something far worse than death.”

He waited for Raya to respond with narrow eyes and a smile thinner than paper. She closed her eyes for a moment before opening them again, now with electricity coursing through them.

“Why?” she asked. “Why do you pretend not to care? Why do you force yourself to wear that mask of a villain? Like you’re not trying to help us? Like getting all that information cost nothing to you?”

Her words shocked Telantra so much that his eyes widened for once. He quickly turned his back to her and stepped away so that she couldn’t see his face. He rested his hands on the balcony as he stared at his city.

When he turned back around, his face resembled a fox’s again.

“You can’t survive this world by playing nice and being a good person, Raya,” he said, but before he could say anything more, she interrupted him.

“Bullshit,” she said. “The only requirement to survive in this world is strength. Don’t confuse kindness with weakness, or cruelty with strength.”

Alexander frowned as she continued:

“You told me that Adam and I would suffer cruel fates. Was that supposed to scare me? I just have to create a new Fate for myself. With my strength it’s not impossible.”

The winds picked up speed as dark clouds began to cover the sky. As they converged above Raya, she extended her arm towards Alexander.

“Join me, Alexander Telantra. Join me and I’ll show you just how fallible those heinous eyes of yours truly are.”

He stood dumbfounded for a moment as the winds played with his hair. Then he laughed– really laughed for once.

It was a useless gesture– he knew nothing would really change between the two of them. But Alexander had nothing to gain from Raya and everything to lose. Yet he still took the hand of that girl who was several inches shorter than him.

“Sure,” he said. “Show me what you’ve got.”

It was just a promise– one he knew would fall to pieces eventually. The odds of breaking such a Fate were less than one in a thousand. But he still couldn’t help it, perhaps fighting against Fate was what he had been born to do.

Adam went and took care of that vile merchant not long after that, kidnapping him for interrogation by the Count’s men. Eventually, all human trafficking and slave trading were ended in Celestia.

Then Raya died, having fulfilled her promise. She had changed her fate, but she had changed it to one worse than what Count Telantra had seen. So now it was his turn to keep up his side of the bargain.

He would follow Raya’s footsteps into the dragon’s den and return with the head of a tyrant.