Chapter 40: The Procession

Ezkyrath requested that Magnavex take me to the Lord’s room so we could begin the tutoring.

I wasn’t really paying attention.

Olive was still dealing with Mira, who didn’t seem as upset about me almost dying as I originally thought. She was more upset that I hadn’t taken her with me. Now, on our way to see her brother, she had made me hold her hand as an apology while I told her what happened in the forest.

She could be such a little brat sometimes.

That was why I didn’t really notice what was happening in Lucarion’s body until Magnavex closed the door behind her, leaving me alone with Ezkyrath.

Ezkyrath promptly plopped herself sideways on a chair, her legs kicking lazily in the air.

“Aaah,” she sighed.

Her form was much more intact now, no longer quite so liquid. She resembled an Eclipseran, though her gender wasn’t noticeable, and her face still lacked features. More importantly, her entire demeanor had changed the moment Magnavex left the room.

Gone was the centuries-old wise tutor. In her place was an aloof teenager.

“Well? Aren’t you going to sit?” she asked, pointing at the chair behind the desk.

I walked to the chair and sat down.

“Tsk.”

Ezkyrath clicked her tongue at me and got up from the chair.

She walked toward me from behind the desk, then sat down on the desk itself, her legs dangling slightly over the edge.

She looked down at me. “There’s so much you don’t know, huh, hun.”

Her voice no longer sounded numerous. She sounded a lot more like a young woman now.

I opened my mouth to speak, but she held out a finger, silencing me. She waited to make sure I was being quiet before lying down across the desk and staring at the ceiling.

I took a moment to look around the room.

It was as impressive as the rest of the house, equipped with a big desk, shelves filled with expensive-looking books, and even fancy swords and shields hanging on one wall. I dragged my finger across the desk. There was no dust or anything, which was impressive, considering there hadn’t been a Demon Lord in a while.

Those demons I saw sneaking around must have been cleaning this manor.

Ezkyrath still hadn’t moved.

Fine. If she thought she could be more patient than me, she had another thing coming.

***

“Then I shoved the berries into the foxquil’s throat, and it fell right to sleep!”

I was finishing my explanation of my forest adventure just as Mira and I reached the entrance of the blacksmith.

Leslie’s smithy squatted at the edge of the square. Its walls were thick, darkened trunks braced with bands of iron, and its roof was layered in black clay tiles.

A broad stone chimney rose from the back, taller than the roof by half, coughing thin streams of gray smoke into the air. The front doors were thrown open, and heat rolled from inside in slow waves. I could smell hot metal and old leather, and hear water hissing from the heat.

Beside the entrance sat a barrel of cooling water, its surface trembling every time something heavy struck metal inside.

Clang.

The sound rang out through the square.

Clang.

For a second, I thought it was the smithy.

Then I realized it was the church bells.

The church bells were used to gather everyone.

Mira looked up at me. “Why are they calling us? Is it a holiday?”

“I don’t think so?”

I looked around as the townsfolk started moving toward the church. There was a larger Grovekeeper presence near the southern gate, their weapons visible and their attention fixed outward.

Maybe my parents had arrived?

No. My parents wouldn’t have arrived so soon. Besides, that didn’t warrant the church bells.

Mira’s hand tightened around mine.

We changed course and started heading toward the church.

Francine was already in the square, frantically getting everyone in line, even the grown-ups. She had that teacher look on her face, the one that meant the entire world could be falling apart and she would still expect us to stand in a straight row.

“Quickly! I want to be able to get you all in one shot.” She waved us over. “Olive, next to your brother.”

She turned to Mira. “Where’s, oh, there’s your brother!”

Dain came running up from the direction of the smithy, covered in soot, with sweat streaking his face and neck. “What’s going on?” he gasped.

“We don’t...” Mira started telling her brother, while I slipped away to stand beside mine.

Back in the Lord’s room, Ezkyrath sat up abruptly, her gaze landing heavily on me.

“You have quite a lot of patience,” she said. “It’s unbecoming of a young lord.”

Unbeco—was she really saying I was too patient?

In the square, I stood next to Olivander. “Why are we all gathered here?” I asked him.

Reed, who was standing on his other side, spoke first. “A member of the royal family is coming here!”

Ezkyrath continued, “You lack the temperament of a lord. Your walk earlier was that of a child, and considering you asked me to teach you etiquette, you must be lacking in everything that makes someone a lord.”

I hesitated before answering anyone, making sure the correct mouth spoke.

“A royal?” was all Olive managed to say.

“Yes,” Olivander said. “An advance guard passed through and told us to prepare.”

Francine thrust both hands outward. “Cleanse!”

Light swept over us in a warm rush. I hadn’t considered myself dirty before, but after the spell hit me, I realized I had never felt so clean in my life.

In the Lord’s room, Ezkyrath ruffled Lucarion’s hair before sliding off the desk and moving to sit in the chair in front of me.

“What do you know about the economy?”

“That’s maths, right?”

“…”

“I know how to do math!” I said defensively.

In the square, Francine went through the children one by one, straightening shirts, brushing dirt from sleeves, and fixing collars with quick, merciless hands. The entire town had gathered around the square now, except for the Grovekeepers, who remained near the gate.

“Politics?” Ezkyrath asked.

“Well, there’s kings and queens, and their kids are princes and princesses. And they send an advance guard anywhere they go.” I mentioned what I had just learned

She raised a hand to cut me off.

“What were you good at in your previous life?”

“Wha, what?”

“I know Demon Lords are from Earth. I was actually contracted to one ages ago,” she said bitterly.

“Oh, right, yes! I’m from Earth.” Lucarion nodded emphatically.

“And?” she asked, as if I were an idiot. “What did you study back on Earth? What are you good at? Previous Demon Lords have been engineering prodigies, militia leaders, martial arts specialists...”

She left it at that, implying there were a lot more.

I didn’t even know what engineering was.

“Oh, umm, I am good at, umm, animals and plants.”

They had to have animals and plants on Earth, right?

“Plants and animals,” she said, tapping her chin. “That wouldn’t directly translate, since our flora and fauna would be different than yours. Though it does explain why you get along with the pup so much.”

The pup?

“Do you know Flicker?”

“Of course I know him. He is the one who recommended you.”

“Recommended?”

“Recommended means to praise another as being worthy. He endorsed you.”

“I know what recommended means!” I complained. “I just meant how? I mean, he’s a dog.”

A horn sounded across the square.

The ground rumbled beneath Olive’s feet.

Mira gasped and grabbed my hand again.

Ezkyrath’s ink-black body shifted hue, darkening toward blue. “How much do you understand about the Wroughtborn?”

She really liked answering questions with questions.

In the distance, the southern gates opened, and three enormous carriages rolled through, pulled by a single magnificent beast.

The beast was so large my mind refused to understand him all at once.

He should have been impossible. Too tall, too broad, too heavy for the road beneath him. Each carriage behind him was grand enough to be a house on wheels, and still he made them look like toys dragged along by a child. His hide looked like living bark, thick and ridged in great folds, with broad antlers rising from his head like weathered branches. Moss clung to his back, dotted with tiny glowing motes that flickered like sleepy stars.

I forgot how to breathe.

I needed to know everything about him.

“The Wroughtborn are, umm...” They wouldn’t call them monsters, right? “Created by your god to serve the Eclipserans in their war, lives,” Lucarion said, barely able to focus.

The carriages themselves were unmistakably royal. Polished whitewood panels gleamed beneath bands of gold, and every surface was carved with Calmanthe’s sunburst, its seven rays curling along the doors and window frames. Deep crimson curtains hung behind the glass, which reminded me of, well, Lucarion.

The wheels were massive, iron-rimmed, and reinforced with engraved plates. Long banners in white, gold, and red streamed from the tops, snapping in the wind as the procession passed.

Even the harnesses were ornate, all gilded buckles and embossed leather, fitted more like ceremonial regalia than tack. But somehow, all that gold and polish seemed small beside him.

The beast did not hurry. He didn’t need to. He moved with the slow, crushing certainty of something too mighty to ever be rushed, each step sending another tremor through the square.

Ezkyrath said something, but I wasn’t listening.

At that moment, the first carriage door opened.

Everyone else fell to their knees.