The Nuclear Option

ABEL

Earlier that day…

“You better… get back… out there. Back to… Father.”

Cain sighed, and despite Abel's nerves being assholes half the time, even they felt him shift.

“I know, I know. I just… I need a moment before I face him again.”

“Cain.”

“That’s my name.”

“Ha ha... No. Listen… to me. I… know what you’re thinking.”

“How’s that?”

“You’re an open book… with its pages… colorfully bookmarked.”

“By Solveig’s name… fine, let's hear it, grand sage."

“Father does not… resent you. He didn’t mean… a word… he said. He’s just… very… very scared.”

“But what if that isn’t true?”

“Then… feel… free… to take me off… life support. I'm that confident.”

“Oh, gods, that took a turn. Okay. I’ll get back out there.”

“‘Atta… boy…”

But when Cain immediately reached for his chest where his heart was, Abel knew this wasn't simply a crisis call.

“---GHK!!”

“Cain?!”

“Agh…!”

“Hold on, I’ll… get… help!”

“No! NO HELP!”

Cain's voice immediately sent chills down Abel's spine.

“...Cain?”

But it was too late. Cain walked out and slammed the door behind him with a gust of wind.

"Something's... happening to him. Is it true... what Father said... when he was drunk one night...?"

\\

CAIN

"Oh my gods."

Dad grew three heads.

“You can’t possibly be serious.”

"In a way, it'd be a way of correcting Solveig... and her rambunctious attitude."

"This is still ridiculous."

The Duke slammed his hands flat onto the mahogany desk. “Solveig is a once-in-a-generation talent, Cain. The goddess Solveig herself probably blessed that girl in her grand delusions, and you mean to suggest we simply turn her away? Cast her out of our borders to let, gods forbid, the Quadrant claim her?”

“I think she is a dangerously powerful sorcerer who suffers from severe delusions of grandeur,” Cain countered. “Yes, she is childish. She is reckless. Gods know she’s ghastly irritating at the absolute best of times. But none of that gives you the right to view her as a tool! Especially under the threat of execution.”

The Duke threw his hands up. “She doesn’t have a job, she is completely obsessed with being worshiped, and she can get exactly what she wants by doing well at Hrafen Academy. The winter term orientation begins tonight. We slip her into the registry as a late-enrolled transfer student from the outer borders, assign her as your personal live-in tutor, and keep her under our direct lock and key. What is the issue here?”

“The issue is that you are taking advantage of her.”

“You cannot take advantage of someone who actively wants the opportunity to demonstrate her own worth.”

“Because she wants validation!” Cain shouted. “She is desperate for it! And you are dangling it like bait! Not to mention what would happen if what you just told me about her… condition was true. She’d never survive Hrafen.”

I barely survive here as it is…

The Duke gave him a pointed look. "I understand you are tense. You are passionate. But please don't use that kind of tone on your own father. It's beneath you."

"...My apologies."

Seriously... what's gotten into me recently...?

It's like puberty, but thousands of times worse!

An aspiring hero-to-be should act better than this... hells, my entire life I've tried to not be one and the same as my fellow immature classmates...!

Did Solveig have something to do with it?

Without a word, Cunningham turned to his mahogany desk and began aggressively rummaging through its messy, paper-strewn top, tossing aside old ledgers until his fingers finally clamped onto a specific parchment.

Gods… Cain thought, his throat going dry. Is that…?

“Where are you in these rankings, son?” The Duke asked flatly, holding up the official academy sheet and looking straight at Cain. “Forgive me. In my old age, I’ve been struggling to see.”

Cain stepped forward, his stomach tightening as his finger traced the class rankings from the very top. He kept going down.

Then going.

And going.

And going.

Cain stopped his finger. “Here.”

Fifteenth.

“And who’s at the top?” the Duke demanded.

Cain’s jaw clenched. “…Isolde Blackmore.”

“House Blackmore is clamoring for my place as Duke; have been for years, and they don’t make it subtle,” the Duke muttered. “And right now, their excellence might be just enough leverage for our King to be forced his hand… and turn them into Illustria’s ruling house.”

He turned his back on his son, walking over to the grand glass window to peer down at the sprawling capital below.

From this height, the bustling merchants, manicured parks and trees, and packed markets were filled with regular citizens carelessly milling about their day.

“Our entire way of life is under siege. Every day, more and more people are looking to point fingers at our current situation. It’s not our fault, sure. But people don’t see that. They want change—no matter who. It can’t be worse than this current leadership, they think.”

The Duke turned back, gesturing aggressively to the ranking sheet.

“Meanwhile, the second-place beastkin boy, D’Igoll, has the beastkin base behind him, and he wants to drag us into a war for the Quadrant’s digressions against them—a war we can’t win! Everything is stacked against you, Cain. If you don’t rise up soon and become at least competitive by the time this new semester kicks off, I could be dethroned, you will be deposed, and those Blackmore cunts will let in the one thing we don’t want.”

Cain swallowed hard. “Slavery…”

“Pardon my language,” the Duke growled. “Because this is exactly what is at stake here. And you, my own son, are standing in my office telling me this venture is more worthy of your moral grandstanding than literal slavery?”

The Duke scoffed.

“Forgive me for believing that you don’t seem to be too plussed about it.”

“There has to be another way that does not involve using Solveig, though.” Cain clenched his fists tightly at his sides. “There has to…”

“The Concordat will fall the very second we fall. If she becomes your tutor, she can teach you how to rise to her level. She is clearly a magical savant.”

“And she can control the beastkin as well? As in, she’s a mini-Quadrant mind controlling device.”

“Indeed. And if the Quadrant convinces her to switch sides…”

Cain shifted his stance. “Father… do you remember the fairy tale of Sigurd’s Folly?”

The Duke's gaze narrowed. “Speak plainly.”

“I can’t help but look at her and think of that story,” Cain murmured. “When you've extracted everything you want from her—when she is completely used up… what happens to her when it’s all said and done?”

“Son…” The Duke didn’t blink at his son’s challenge. “Do you truly think the slavers simply finding us in the middle of the Great Forest was any coincidence?”

“...Maybe.”

“And if it weren’t for Solveig, they may well have succeeded. Remember, we told no one of the Great Mother Bear dying. Additionally... Solveig added a detail. A worrying one. Its eyes... they glowed purple.”

"T-That means..." Cain swallowed. “But what you’re suggesting here is…”

“Many parties wish upon our House’s downfall. Your brother… he was merely their first hurdle. Who’s the second?”

…

“Me.”

“I’m not saying using Solveig is one of our options. I’m saying someone as powerful as her, the rogue plan in their grand equation… is our only option. Tutoring will be the official reason, yes. But the second… really, it is to protect you.”

The Duke grimaced.

"Gods know our adversaries are getting more and more brazen by the day."

“What about the fact she can… you know… blow up all of Illustria City?”

“At the rate we’re going…” He paused. “Illustria will explode prematurely regardless.”

\\

CAIN

“Cain…?”

He blinked back to the present upon hearing Solveig’s confusion.

After a short while, he looked down at the false goddess and spoke.

“My Fa…” he caught himself, “the Duke wants to speak with you. I am to be your escort.”

“Ah, right! He did say something like that. I couldn't really make out the specifics through all his boring adult nagging, but… eh, it can’t be helped, then!”

She offered a breezy, confident shrug and turned to stride toward… the opposite direction of where she was supposed to go.

Cain watched her retreating back. Wow.

Please, just please… Solveig…

Though I don't have much faith in you at this point...

Just think through what he has to say...!