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After leading countless battles that resulted in victory and extraordinary displays of power, bravery, and valour, he was promoted to the Queen's General. And he'd taken me with him.
After some insistent whispering in the Queen's ear, she'd promoted me along with him, and for the last 29 years, I'd served as herirae.
Her Wrath.
To put it simply, I was her personal mercenary and executioner. I was the first female in her 480-year reign as Queen to serve as such. The Royal Irae.Something that would never have been possible without Malekai's influence on her.
It was a job I had once been profoundly grateful for, back when I believed that what we were doing was right. Now, however, I felt that each task Zurie assigned me further damned not only my soul but the Kingdom.
"Providing an equal distribution of power,"as Zurie so loved to claim.
It was a lie.
While, yes,aetrawas available to the public, only the wealthiest could afford it. Especially now that the only place it grew was the Kahlohani Islands.
Before Zurie had exhausted Atratus’ other natural resources,aetrahadn’t been particularly popular despite its miraculous properties. It had grown in great abundance, freely, like a wildflower, with its creeping vines, lilac petals, and golden pollen. It wasn’t until Atratus’ other natural resources began to dwindle that Zurie began manipulating the masses into believing that theyneededit. That their impoverished circumstances were due to the fact that they didn’t have enough of it.
Objectively speaking, it was a rather genius plan. And it had worked beautifully.
Once the demand increased, it did so exponentially and rapidly, and we soon learned thataetrawas a rather sensitive plant. It required soil rich in magic and naturally occurring nutrients. All of which was swiftly depleted by her over-seeding and over-harvesting.
While the soil of the mainland had steadily been sucked dry for the last two thousand years, the Kahlohani Sea’s nearby archipelago had remained almost entirely untouched. Its tropical climate was favorable, and its virgin soil, rich.
Zurie and her allies had claimed that chaos would ensue withoutaetrabeing accessible to the masses. That we needed to conquer the Kahlohani Islands soaetrawould be abundant again. That innocent masses would be made vulnerable and victim to the few wielderswho possessed exponentially more power than the rest.
That all happened anyway, except for the fact thataetrahad little to do with it. The wielders who already possessed considerable magic only became more powerful, and those who wielded less magic were forced to abide by their rules and settle for the exceedingly limited resources and opportunities provided to them by the wielders in power. In order to accomplish this, she had chosen to enslave the Kahlohani, who had made the mistake of remaining on the islands and forced them to exploit the land to overgrow and over-harvest it in order to meet the realm’s demands.
Zurie, if anything, was vicious. Her viciousness and mercilessness were inspired by her deep-rooted fear of losing control and power. And withaetraunavailable to almost everyone, most were rendered powerless against her because no one had access to it unless she allowed them to. Only Zurie controlled the growth and harvesting ofaetra, and only her chosen loyal lords and ladies could afford to buy it. It was the most expensive and precious commodity in the entire Bellorum Realm - worth more than gold and jewels.
Malekai exhaled heavily, as though willing himself to be patient, as one would with a child, before leaning in and speaking in a hushed tone.
"You know how I feel about this, Mareina… There will always be those with power and those without. And I thank fuck that I'm one of the ones with it. But it doesn't make me evil. We're all just trying to survive. And the people who meet their ends at your sword put themselves there… And they are all that stands between you and your own end. If it wasn't Zurie, it would be someone else… It is the way of the world."
I disagreed. It didn't have to be that way. His words, in fact, only inspired my anger at his wilful delusion. Perhaps it was his attempt to claim his sanity because I was indeed losing mine.
A grin curled Malekai's lips.
"Want me to just kill her for you, and then we can watch the world burn together?"
I huffed a laugh to mask the longing those words inspired within me. Malekai had jokingly suggested it to me on a number of occasions. More frequently as of late because he'd witnessed me become increasingly morose. And he knew just as well as I did that abandoning Zurie also meant forfeiting my life.
But as much as he joked, we were both trapped. And what were our alternatives even if we did escape? Malekai wasn't about to sacrifice his life of luxury. As much as I hated it, weneededZurie. If something happened to her, she had no heirs, and whoever on her council took her place… Well, they would likely be just as bad, if not worse.
"Oh no,but who would pay for all your trips toSatia Famathen?"
Satia Famaliterally meantsated hungerand was the name of his favorite brothel. It also had a section reserved as a blood parlour and was renowned for its sanguinati beauties.
Malekai's brows lifted as he pulled back to look down at me with a challenging look, absently twisting at the gold and ruby ring that always adorned his middle finger.
"I wouldn't need theSatia Famaif we were together."
My gaze fell from his at the heavy weight settling on my chest. It wasn't like I hadn't considered it for the last hundred years… Like I hadn't had an ache in my chest at the Malekai-shaped hole I had in it because some part of me longed to give in.
But Malekai was all I had. And I wasn't willing to destroy what we had by turning it into some fling. When we'd met, I'd already been in a relationship. We'd become best friends. And when she died during the war, Malekai was there to pick up the pieces. At the time, I'd been so busy grieving and trying to keep us alive that a tryst with him was the furthest thing from my mind. Not to mention, I was absolutely fucking terrified that I'd lose him too.
Malekai hooked a finger beneath my chin.
“Hey… Katadamna Kaza.”
