Page 36 of Ever Dark Academy, Vol. 7

So she kept half an ear open for the sounds outside to change while she found herself looking at the space with new and old eyes. The many times she’d come there to see Caemorn, or rather, be given orders, most of them unpleasant roiled in her mind. The last time had been when he’d ordered her to spy on Balthazar and Daemon. Though she hadn’t really thought it was Daemon at the time.

The starburst pattern of tile on the floor was the same. The throne, itself, was the same. She had thought that Caemorn had chosen it, replacing something less gaudy with this monstrosity, but evidently not. This throne was ostentatious and meant to make a point she hadn’t been willing to see before: who needs a king when you have a Preceptor?

“Have you been up here before, Tanis?” Fiona asked.

She glanced over at her First Childe who was standing just a few feet from the exit to the balcony. Tanis had her fingers laced together in front of her and appeared to be avoiding looking at the throne. Fiona wondered if Tanis was ashamed of its vulgarity. Did she know the point it was trying to make? Did she suggest that it be created to look like this so it made that point?

“For a group that doesn’t want to be ruled again that’s quite a throne.” Charlie muttered. “Daemon’s isn’t half so ornate and he often doesn’t sit in it at all. More likely to find him naked, but for his wolf coat, outside in the woods than in his throne room.”

Fiona found herself grinning. Daemon’s penchant to walk around nude was well known. While Vampires were jaded about nudity, sex, and all of it, seeing Daemon nude had them all acting like children catching a glimpse of their parents. He was perfection, of course. And she imagined that people wanted to look just to see how different he was from all of them.

She’d finally just let herself gaze upon him openly as she realized he didn’t mind it at all and she could, once and for all, satisfy her curiosity. He was humanoid, but clearly not human. That was her takeaway in any event. Now she found it quite easy to look upon him naked or clothed with equanimity. His nakedness still caused Arcius to blush however.

“I remember Daemon’s throne well,” Tanis said carefully. “We did not wish to copy it in any way. This is to have another purpose.”

“What purpose would that be exactly? To impress upon the peasants that they should not speak to their betters? To make the Preceptor into a god?” Fiona’s tone was sharper than she intended it to be.

Who was she angry with? Tanis or herself? How had she not seen how the Order was trying to supplant Daemon and the Immortals before? How had she not understood the heavy-handedness of it? Or maybe she had, but she hadn’t cared? Or thought because it was her “team” or her “side” doing these things that it was acceptable? Anything to win? Anything to retain control?

“The throne is not to exalt the person who sits upon it, but to represent the power of the people who have elected them,” Tanis said, but she sounded like she was reading from a script.

“Do you believe that?” Charlie let out a dry cough.

Tanis shifted uneasily. “I suggested that there be no throne. That it wasn’t wise to try and replace royalty in any way. The Preceptor is to serve Vampire-kind, not rule them.”

“Ah, spoiler alert: that’s not what happens,” Charlie responded, but his tone was not as snappish as before.

“No, clearly not.” Tanis crossed her arms over her chest and grimaced.

Fiona crossed the room to her and gently touched her shoulders, laying her palms flat upon them. Tanis slowly turned her head to look at her. To touch her First Childe had something in Fiona unfreezing. Tanis had no idea that the Order was wrong and twisted. She thought she had been doing something good. She had to remember that and not slide in her own judgment about herself.

“I’m sorry, Tanis. I’m not judging you. I mean…” Fiona let out a breath and tilted herself back. “I’m angry at myself and not just for how I was as Wyvern, but after. I was a faithful member of the Order. A Senior Confessor. The right hand of the Preceptor for a time.”

Tanis’ eyes flickered over her face. “You believed?”

“Yes, I did. Even though my logical mind told me that the stories were too simplistic to be true. I did believe in the spirit of the Order. I believed that it kept us safe and secure, not only from those like the Immortals who would abuse us again, but those who would expose our existence to humanity as well,” Fiona answered. “I was incredibly loyal.”

Tanis’ eyes lit up with hope. “But that’s not bad–”

“But it was.” Fiona tightened her hands on her fledgling’s shoulders. “Because I allowed others to think for me. I ignored all the warnings in my head. I put my faith in pablum rather than truth. I used my power to prop up something evil.”

Tanis gasped. “Evil?”

“Kaly is… This is so hard to explain, because who Kaly is now is a friend of mine. A dear friend. Someone I trust with my existence. But I know that he was very ill during this time and he has the propensity to do things that are unspeakable.” Fiona shook her head. “But so do I as do all the Immortals. We started to resemble Earth’s Roman and Greek Gods of old with all their frailties, oversized egos, and lack of care. We can be monsters, but we must be so sparingly and only against the more dire enemies. But, instead, we were that way to one another and to you.”

“You don’t believe I would knowingly create something that was evil, do you, Mistress?” Tanis sounded anguished.

“No, never. The fact that you say knowingly is key. You didn’t know. You’re having to take much of what I say on the trust you have in me,” Fiona admitted.

“I believe you. I mean I think you are telling the truth as you see it. And maybe it is the truth. The cold, hard truth.” Tanis shook her head. “I could reveal the truth to others about the Order. We could oust Kaly and make the Order clean and what it should be, Mistress.”

But it was Fiona’s turn to shake her head. “That’s not how this is going to go. You try that and you will be given your Second Death before you take your first breath to utter those words.”

“The Order tells of Kaly’s atrocities! People loathe them as much as the… the other Immortals,” Tanis got out hesitantly, but then continued more quickly, “They will have no friends here among us.”

“That’s just it, dear heart, Kaly can be anyone. They can take over any body. They can have any power. They could be your best friend and you wouldn’t know until it was too late,” Fiona explained. “You could be telling someone you trust with your very existence and that person could be Kaly. They’ll know, Tanis. Even if you don’t speak out, they’ll still know.”

She remembered the desperate fight it had taken to win against the Kaly slices before. I had required all of them working together from Kaly to Eyros to Julian and Christian. And they hadn’t gotten them all. That’s why they were still in this spot.