Chapter 24: A not so welcome home

I had finally gotten some rest in what felt like years, the last time I slept was when back in the Treasure Kingdom, when I had exhausted myself, and that was weeks ago. And much like last time my dream began in the same fashion, floating in the strange sea of darkness before finding myself somewhere new. This time I’m facing the stranger that was speaking to me, only now can I hear something, much like static I can barely make out a few words, “ a kingdom” and “usurper” were the only words that made it through, unlike last time the word “usurper” was used instead of freed which like last time, added onto the confusion. I am once again placed somewhere new, or old I guess. I was back at the court with the strange stone, now I knew it was Onyx’s court in his castle, only difference was the sand storm swirling outside instead of the space view from when I was last there, this time someone else was here, there entire figure shrouded in darkness kinda like what Jade did, like I wasn’t supposed to know who they were just yet. From where the dream put me I could only barely see their eyes, until it fully turned to look at me, its gaze bore through me, I jolted awake from the dream in a cold sweat, freaky. Much like last two times I have no idea what either of those dreams meant but I decided to write down the words in case I make sense of it or hear the rest. It was late morning when I had woken, Jade was dubbed queen a few days after we got back and the people were happy to see mother as well. The long-waged war against the abyssal and their kings has come to an end, I freshen up before heading out. I managed to catch up with Mother about the things that had happened during her absence and what I had been doing before she had to head out to deal with things at the council, they would have to discuss whether or not to keep Jade or let mother reign. A few days after Jades return to the throne a festival was held to celebrate the war's end. I find Eren in her workplace at the palace, despite the festival she was working on salvaging what was left of Onyx’s sword, refurbishing it into a smaller sword, one that I could wield, "the essence of Onyx has been removed from the blade's metal, now it’s a rather durable sword for you to wield in the coming battles,” Eren says handing me the blade, it looked more refined than when Onyx used it, the once jagged blade had been fine tuned using abyssal magic. I had forgotten my old one broke during my fight with Onyx, but the blade still had traces of darkness, I guess even Eren has her limits. I also decided to ignore the “upcoming battles” bit, I’ve decided to deal with that when it happens. I sheathe the blade and thank Eren, I suggest she take the time off to enjoy the festival before heading to the meeting hall, despite the festive day every council member had been called to discuss the outcome of the war, I was included again as I had lead the charge on the now fallen king. "He is tainted by the darkness, who’s to say what side he’s on!” Anthonys' can be heard from just outside the doors, I take in a deep breath before entering the hall, everyone turns to look at me. It seems I had missed the discussion on whether or not Jade will remain and the war, they were now arguing about my strange connections to the darkness, which I personally think isn’t a problem but I can see why they're afraid. “ I witnessed it, he was able to overcome the temptations of the dark energy to fight Onyx, “ Mother counters, she and Cass were the only ones there when the battle happened, so nobody else knows I can siphon energy, would be better to keep it that way for now. " Is it not the law that those who wield the darkness be exiled from the kingdom? He’s no different, he can’t even wield the light, and on top of that he’s able to absorb and wield the abyss king's power to its full content, that is not someone who should be guarding the city, who knows if he’s still under the influence of that, that thing!” Anthony states still frantically pointing at me, standing behind him was that scout I had already forgotten about, I unintentionally glare at him, which scares him to cowering behind Anthony, as if that would’ve made a difference. “ Even now he wields the darkness against my scout, who was simply documenting the battle!” Anthony yells I hadn’t noticed it but it seems the darkness had been triggered by my anger, but before I could speak up Cass puts his hand on my shoulder, I hadn’t noticed him walk next to me.

“ Just cause the kids using a power we don’t understand and affiliate to evil, doesn’t mean he's going to go rouge on us, who knows, maybe we can further our own firepower, it would be like having our own trump card, plus our own Queen wields dark powers so I don’t see the difference here,” Cass says, “ and my affinity puts me at risk of losing control to some cranky old dude who’d kill everyone but I don’t see any complaints to that,” Cass reassures, Anthony was not buying, “ Your in the presence of two old god emissaries and yet your this afraid of one person with an affinity to darkness? Perhaps you should reconsider being a council member,” Akira adds, the two seemed to enjoy angering him, and then his scout whispered something to him, clearly it was something he could use against me as his face practically brightened, whatever he was going to say next could not be good, “ the second grand law of the First Queen! It states that anyone who wields the darkness is to be exiled from the kingdom, even if you are the Queen's son that doesn’t mean you can be exempted from this law! Despite queen Jade having supposedly broken the same rule and mysteriously removed the laws effect,” Anthony was practically yelling again, The grand laws are laws that were created by the founder of the kingdom, nobody knows their name but it wasn't my grandmother, the previous queen, she came to power years after that according to her, one of them was the banishment of those who wield the dark affinity, regardless of control and intention. “ I wielded a dark power years ago to strike down an opponent who threatened the kingdom, thus I was afflicted with the exiled state, I upheld rulership in the Shadow Kingdom under a different name where I would have reign as Queen forever, if it weren’t for Caelus and Aurum. We were able to remove the curse by using a force of equal power, The Umboura fragment,” Queen Jade spoke. This fragment must’ve been rare, the way everyone seemingly knew what it was as they murmured amongst themselves, everyone but Cass and I. “ So wanna fill me in on this, “amber shard” or whatever it was she said?” Cass whispers nudging my shoulder, despite being a councilman and having been there when the emissary was struck down, he was probably the least intelligent of the six, but according to Winter his mastery over his power was almost on par with Queen Jade, that being the only thing keeping him from becoming one of the royal commander, a step up from council member, there basically the rulers closest ally which there are only ever three at a time, Winter and Clover with the third being absent for years now with the last known records dating back to Queen Jades first rule.

“ Umboura fragments can only be obtained from an agent of the Voidless Ascender, and the last time one was seen was back during the reign of the first queen, which according to the texts was centuries ago, the sudden discovery of one implies a few things mother,” says royal commander Thorn, she was given the third position as she was fit for it. “ What it implies can be discussed another time, as for the matter of Caelus’s exile, Im afraid it is something that has been determined when he wielded the darkness. Regardless of his intention he will be banished from the kingdom in two days time, that is all,” Queen jade ends the meeting. There was no arguing against that one, it doesn’t matter if I saved the kingdom from Onyx, I wielded the dark power, I won’t awaken my power to the light. Before Cass can speak up again I step in " The Queen is right, I can’t be exempted from this law. I used the dark power in my fight against Onyx, I will continue to wield it when the time calls for it, until then,” Mother couldn’t do anything even if she was a royal commander, a grand law cannot be overwritten, breaking it places a curse which takes its effect in two days time as Jade had said, this curse prevents me from entering the kingdom, and if im still here when it activates then it would teleport me outside of the kingdoms jurisdiction. I leave the hall, but this time the gaze of that girl is gone, I can’t feel it, I’ve gotten used to the feeling now, I somewhat miss it, weird. “Hey!” Cass calls out, “ just because your exiled doesn’t mean your no longer my right hand, we’ll stay in touch, Im sure we’ll need your help sooner than anyone expects,” Cass says, I thank him and make my way out. A few hours had gone by when I return to the palace library, Winter had called me down talk about something, he was standing next to a desk with a map of the entire continent, “ fell of the old, also referred to as the purge of the old” Winter says, right I forgot about that, he did say he would explain that later, “ The old gods were the original holders of certain affinities and they were riddiculously strong with them, whether these affinities found a new user or not isn’t yet known, but I have a small group tracking those affinities down, going back to the old gods, they were essentially killed by the combined effort of the first rulers of the four kingdoms,” Winter continues, “ the exact details as to how they were able to overpower the old gods isn’t known but it can be assumed they were able to find some kind of weakness, but aside from their affinity a few left behind weapons like the blade of the fallen star belonging to the old god of the lost flame, currently in holding in the City of Bygone, and the blade of first thunder in Akiras possession, with the others having been lost to time or simply buried somewhere,” Winter concludes, interesting, one other thing that I noticed was that the map he had layed out was weird, it was similar to the one Eren had laid out on her wall which I hadn’t really questioned before. Normally if you went east of Luminos you’d be met with sea, but on this map it shows an entire extended area? “ That was the lawless lands,” Winter says, as if he had read my mind, “ This continent was once larger, but during the clash between Vacthius and Queen Aurum I, the entirety of the lawless lands sunk into the ocean,” Winter explains placing overtop the old map the current one, where ocean stood in place of the lawless lands. He hands me a book on a full length explanation along with more information on the gods themselves and their known weapons/affinites, I thank Winter and head out. Learning of these old gods made me wonder if the voidless ascender and Star are counted as one, or were there separate gods for those affinities and those two fell into a separate category of divinity? Either way I’ll accept the power I have as my own, though the power of the abyssal king is gone it seems memory fragments were left behind, some that are worth checking out, certain places that will hold some significance in the future, now that the voidless ascender is making its move strengthening myself is more important, and now I have all the time to do so. But for now, the kingdom was safe from threat. I’ll return when something interesting happens, or when I am needed.

Caelus begins his journey away from the kingdom, his blue eyes had traces of dark red, why it had done that was a mystery to be solved, further ahead was a tall mountain that harbored the strange cave, and around it the lush forests stood, further to the west of it was one of the many kingdoms on Star, these surrounding kingdoms would be pulled into the into play, and one which will be of immense value soon. And so Caelus walked forward, with his one goal in mind, he was able to move forward.