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“Not until I’ve read and we’ve both signed. And, you know what? Let’s broadcast this new agreement. I want Kaio’s people to see that he was forced to use magick and that you’ve helped stop the fighting and brokered a peace between him and Zyair.”
“You’ll ruin my reputation,” Bloodworm pushed through the door, hunched over and pale. “I can’t sell war if I’m broadcasting peace!”
“You won’t live to do anything without that antidote,” Gwen shrugged, tapping her foot and pursing her lips.
“Never thought I’d hate a woman as much as my mother, but here we are,” Bloodworm seethed, gnashing his teeth before activating his transmitter and speaking.
“Get that new contract up here now, and make sure we’ve got at least three videographers.”
“All of our equipment and staff are still focused on the quarry, Commissioner. The viewers have been messaging like mad. They’re all on the edge of their seats waiting to see what happens to that Incendiary.”
Bloodworm sighed, and then held his stomach as a new wave of pain hit. “The damn games are finished. Just do what I say.”
“Tick tock,” Gwen said, almost playfully. “Hope they get here soon. I mean, look at the size of your stomach, Bloodworm!”
He looked down, grimacing and patting his stomach. He was scared, pressing at his belly and looking back at Gwen with a frantic expression. Funny enough, his abdomen looked just as big as it always did. Fear was blinding the man.
After about ten rotations of the long hand on Bloodworm’s clock, a slew of people poured into the office. Gwen was handed a pile of papers and she read over each word slowly, modifying items with a writing utensil and glaring at Bloodworm every few minutes.
“Your people definitely know how your mind works, but I think I’ve made sure everything is acceptable.” She glanced at me. “It’s not ideal, but this allows them to lose your likeness to market the next Galactic Gladiator Games. But not in perpetuity, as they initially included in the contract. It also confirms that Orenda has fulfilled her debt to the prison system and the GGG. Bloodworm can never forcibly draft any of your people to participate in any future games. Zyair will be pardoned, as well, and sent back to Vanguard, though I doubt that’s going to make him happy. He was here to kill you, plain and simple.”
I nodded slowly, well aware that the cameras were capturing every movement and every word. “Zyair will be pardoned by Orenda as well. I also commit to pardoning those Orendans incarcerated in Vanguard. We will do so slowly, so as to reintegrate them into our society a few at a time. I cannot fathom that my grandfather meant for children to be born in that place. It only serves to foster continued dissidence. The Incendiaries were always a part of us, and they shall be again. But we must find a way to embrace the olde ways without burning the world. Total destruction has never been the answer.”
“Easy to pardon people when you’ve done the same damn thing, isn’t it, King Kaio?” Bloodworm gasped out the question, fighting against pain to get in one last sharp jab.
His words hit home, and I held up my hands in an effort to placate my people and the watching universe. I drew in a breath and gave what was perhaps the most important speech of my reign.
“Truly, it is an impossible thing. I am struggling with myself. During these games, in an effort to survive, I have utilized magick that has long been forbidden on my planet. Because of this, I wonder if I should not abdicate the throne and go into isolation. Do I not deserve the same punishment as those who transgressed before me?”
Gwen moved towards me, ready to comfort me and dissuade me again. I stopped her with a soft smile.
“But I am not my grandfather or my father. Just as Zyair Morte is not his grandfather or father. We have a unique opportunity to reconcile, to find the balance between dark and light, good and evil. I truly believe that it is time, my fellow Orendans, to embrace all that we might become.”
As I said the words, I found myself hopeful.
Hopeful that my fractured world, broken so long ago by a division in belief, could be healed.
Hopeful that my reign would be the end of the animosity between us.
Hopeful that Gwen would stay with me to help me make my new vision a reality.
But I was also fearful that I was doing the wrong thing and that I would pay for my hubris.
Gwen handed Bloodworm the paperwork and he signed with a shaking hand. He pushed it back at her, scowling. She handed it to me, along with her pen, and I also signed. I held the contract up, flourishing it for the cameras.
“Orendans, our planet is free!”
I did not know what was happening on my world, whether my people were celebrating with me or appalled at my broken oaths to never use the olde powers. I would find out when I was home. I would find out, and hopefully lead us into a new era.
When the cameras were taken away, Bloodworm stood up and staggered towards Gwen, holding his hand out desperately. “Give the antidote to me. Give it to me now!”
“I don’t have one,” Gwen shrugged.
“What the hell do you mean I don’t have one? Are you saying I’m going to fucking die?” Bloodworm looked stricken, staggering back and nearly falling—and he would have, if not for the desk he clutched for support.
“Oh, you won’t die.”
I was grateful Dismor and Magl’on rushed into the office just then, because I was fairly sure Bloodworm was about to explode. Physically and emotionally.
