Chapter Text
Jace watched the livestream.
He sat alone in his apartment, the only throwable thing within arm’s reach being a few throw pillows. He didn’t know if it was possible to get ready for this, but this was as good as he could think of.
There was a part of his mind, the teacher part, that was obnoxiously loud as the stream started. It commented on the excellent camera quality, remarked on how one of the party had clearly taken up artificing. Probably the rogue, although the way Fig Faeth had been dipping into every class that was also a possibility. He didn’t care. It didn’t matter. But it was so much easier to analyse what these kids were doing as a teacher than it was to think about what was coming as himself.
So he sat and watched a group of teenagers surge their way through enemies. They were so in sync with one another it was almost eerie. He knew so many parties were going to be getting lectures on this in the coming days. He almost pitied them.
Then the party reached the top of the staircase. The teacher part of Jace’s brain suddenly went very quiet.
There were many tell-tale signs when it came to possession. The eyes were the most obvious most of the time. For some reason, demonic beings and the like just could not get eyes right. Hands were an under appreciated tell that even more skilled mimics struggled with. But there were many, many signs.
Jace could not see one of them when he looked at Arianwen.
Arianwen hovered about forty feet in the air. Around her, a tornado of raw spell energy and storms swirled, lightning cracking from some unseen plane. Beneath her fluttering robes, dark purple scars swirled over her hands and around her neck. Electric energy rippled over them, made her eyes glow.
There was no sign of possession, but Jace knew this wasn’t Arianwen. This wasn’t her magic. This wasn’t the ritual they had planned together, dreamed of, gone over more times than Jace could count.
She wasn’t under a spell but it was something. If Jace was there, he would have been able to figure it out, seeing some of the smaller hints that could have explained this. There were curses on the crown, one that Arianwen had dismissed as being clerical in nature but it was possible that it had done… done something.
The children didn’t care. Faeth’s mother had been possessed and they went out of their way to save her. Arianwen wasn’t afforded the same mercy. The now very quiet teacher part of his mind pointed out that was probably the right move. Whatever was wrong with Arianwen wasn’t going to be solved with a simple dispel magic. To show her mercy would almost definitely have been suicide.
That voice was quiet, though. Very quiet.
“Not enough time. Not enough time.”
Jace watched - judging by the view count, all of Solace watched - as Arianwen revealed the crown. It should have been a poignant moment, the symbol of their god’s destruction and the thing that had consumed and changed his entire life. Then an invisible creature latched onto Arianwen and began fighting for the crown.
Jace could practically hear the laughter from hundreds of teens as Arianwen kicked away the small invisible creature. It made his stomach sink. Everything he’d worked for, everything they had worked for, was being destroyed, and they were laughing. He knew it.
The camera reoriented to face off the cliff top, where twin pillars of cloud reached out of the storm. They began to form a humanoid shape, a figure taller than a mountain, surrounded by lightning and spell energy. Vapour solidified into bones draped in robes, and a disgusting grey-yellow skull.
Even here, thousands of miles away, fear gripped Jace. Tears formed in his eyes and images flashed in his mind. An entire village of people with their eyes torn out. Elves mutilated into eldritch beings with twisted, broken limbs and too many hands. A world of mirrors with nothing but endless void beyond the edge of the frame.
Jace had to drag his eyes away from the screen, almost amazed to find he was still in his living room, still in the safety of a city far removed from danger. It was happening, but it had already happened. The world wasn’t going to end.
Jace was brought back to the screen by Arianwen’s voice as she cast a spell. Adaine and her sister had joined the group on the ridge. They were both covered in blood, exhaustion clear on Aelwyn’s face. Adaine was doing slightly better. Despite the horror forming just a few feet away, there was a determined and focused look on her face. Or there was, until Arianwen threw a Power Word Pain at her.
The colour drained from Jace’s face and he suddenly felt lightheaded. Adaine doubled over in pain but somehow managed to stop a scream ripping out her voice box. He felt… proud? That didn’t seem like the right word but it was the closest he had. She was her mother’s daughter and Adaine could fix this. She shouldn’t have to but she could.
“Where is your father?”
Somehow, through all the noise around her, Arianwen’s voice was as clear as if she were speaking into his mind.
“Well, the last I saw, Adaine killed him.”
Adaine looked up at her mother again, blood trickling from her nose but a determined look on her face. Yes, proud was definitely the right word.
Now Jace knew there was something wrong with Arianwen. If he thought hard enough, he could probably come up with a reason why Arianwen had turned her back on Her in favour of the Nightmare King. He could understand Arianwen hurting the girls if she thought they were standing between her and her goals when she was just so close. He could explain away the things that weren’t his Arianwen but were clearly happening. But there was no possible explanation for why she would ask about him.
The battle continued. Jace knew he should care. Care about a pit fiend going after the Nightmare King. Care about Kalina throwing the rogue off the cliff. Care about all that. But he couldn’t.
The words kept echoing in his head. Where is your father? Where is your father? What had Angwyn done to her?
A horn pushed through Adaine’s chest and through Jace’s thoughts. A skeletal unicorn pinned Adaine to a wooden cottage. Surprise and terror was left on her face as the life slipped away. The light left her eyes.
It was ok. It was going to be ok because Adaine was alive. Adaine was alive and safe in Solace. Adventurers died all the time. Revivify was so low level it wasn’t even a concern after freshman year. But as seconds ticked by, as their cleric prioritised healing those that were already up, a sinking feeling settled in Jace’s chest.
He didn’t realise he wasn’t breathing until Kristen Applebees finally knelt over Adaine’s body and brought her back. Jace rubbed the heels of his hands into his eyes, focusing on the stars that the action produced.
The sound of the battle continued to ring in his ears. Part of him wanted to close the stream and walk away. It didn’t matter what happened. Jawbone had already told him. He didn’t need to see it. But he couldn’t move from where he was sitting. His legs felt like lead and when he pulled his hands away from his face he couldn’t take his eyes from the screen.
“Adaine, how would you feel if I potentially killed your mom?”
“I would be honoured.”
“No.”
Jace watched as the bard threw a spell at Arianwen. Arianwen crumpled to the floor, a sickening snap ringing out as a bone in her leg broke. She was weeping and Jace could see that it was more than gravity and pain that was crushing down on her.
This was his fault. Jace should have been there with her. All of this was too much to put on one person. They had both been stupid to think Arianwen could bring Her back by herself. Even as powerful as she was. He thought back to when he had last seen Arianwen, in the halls at Aguefort as Jace’s skull throbbed. She had wanted him to go with her and if he had just said yes…
“Monarch of nightmares, I have restored you. Please, answer my call. Heed my request. Lay low those who would attempt to stop you.”
Jace couldn’t say yes, though. Because he was the idiot that made Cliffbreaker suspicious. And he had let himself he sacrificed instead of getting out of there. And he had left her alone to deal with the curse of the crown and Kalina and Angwyn.
The camera spun away from Arianwen again as the cleric stepped into the air, held aloft by spectral ribbons emanating from a wand in her hands. The cleric held up her hands as she floated towards the skeletal figure of the Nightmare King.
Applebees became engulfed in the entity’s chest. The comment counter on the side of the stream was skyrocketing even faster than before as everyone on the ledge and everyone at home waited and watched and waited.
A deep purple light flooded away from the Nightmare King. A blast of air pushed the clouds away and sent wind rushing through the trees. The skeletal figure shuddered before bones cracked and slipped away, revealing the most beautiful being Jace had ever seen.
The figure was made of shifting glass, deep indigo filling Her and tiny stars forming freckles on Her arms and face. Her eyes glowed purple and radiated warmth as She smiled at those gathered on the ledge. Youth but somehow timeless age were etched into Her features that still seemed to have the motion of creation.
Jace could taste his own tears as the figure introduced herself as Cassandra, the divinity of mystery. As Applebees introduced her as her new god.
“Our god,” Jace whispered. The shard in is chest pulsed with a mixture of pressure and anger.
His god turned to Arianwen. All the warmth had vanished, Her beautiful features contorted into something that felt far too familiar to Jace. Her voice was beautiful but he felt as if his ears were bleeding as She scolded Arianwen, took her magic away. Permanently.
Jace could hear them laughing. Them. The Bad Kids. Their allies. The 6.2 million people watching the stream. Jace’s vision faded into a red mist as Arianwen screamed, chased down the stairs by the second most horrifying creature he had seen that day.
They were going to pay. They were all going to pay.
