Of Kings and Killers (Elder Empire Sea #3) - WIll Wight Page 0,111
of everyone in the Capital, but he didn’t stop.
The light from Hightower shone, burning shadow with every second, but the sky-spanning Great Elder continued cramming itself into human skin like a worm burrowing into the ground.
The sky grew lighter and lighter, and Calder roused himself. He had to do something to help. Even Shera was focusing her mist to weaken the Elder, lunging toward him with her daggers at the ready.
Calder tightened his Intent around her like a noose. He had to break his connection to the Optasia very soon, so this was his last chance to execute someone who had rebelled against him.
As though he was Reading his own memory, he saw Jarelys Teach touching Rojric Marten.
The Emperor would not have let a rebel live.
His Intent from his armor and his crown, both of which Calder carried on his person, agreed. Anyone who defied the Emperor was defying the Empire, civilization, humanity itself. They were traitors who deserved no mercy.
Calder would not become him.
He released his grip on Shera and flew back through the Capital, investing more and more into the protective talismans. Now wasn’t the time. If he could reclaim the Steward’s position, or even any other position of influence similar to a Guild Head, he could pursue his grudge against Shera later.
Now was the time to join hands and fight their real enemy.
He turned his focus back to Urg’naut, the
Creeping
Shadow
All is darkness.
There is only the void.
Existence is suffering.
Death is mercy.
Calder drifted on a black sea.
There was no light. He could hardly remember what light was.
Urg’naut had already won. He’d won from the very beginning. He had won before the game began.
How could you avoid the end itself?
Someone lit a match in front of Calder’s eyes, and he screamed.
“You in there, boy?” Foster’s voice.
Calder shuddered and threw up a hand between him and the light. It was too wrong, too out of place, he would see it, he would know…
“Will he recover?” Andel asked.
“That’s up to him. I’ve seen some come out of it in hours. Still had nightmares for the rest of their lives, but they had lives. Seen others…that never did.”
“What’s wrong with him?” Petal whispered.
Foster gave a heavy sigh. “He Read an Elder, girl.”
Chapter Twenty-One
present day
Calder could see nothing, hear nothing, feel nothing, smell nothing, taste nothing.
Nothing tasted like ice.
Death pressed in against him, inside him, infecting his mind. He couldn’t close his eyes for fear of the endless darkness, but opening them was worse; he could see the shadows lying over the world. The shadows were Urg’naut, and Urg’naut was the end.
As his crew discussed him, their words were just noise, noise that could attract the Great Elder. His thoughts dashed away from him, handfuls of stars cast into the endless void beyond the world. His mind sought anything that could relieve the darkness.
He still wore the Emperor’s armor. The crown was tucked away inside.
The Emperor’s Intent had pressed in on him for so long now that he had grown used to resisting it as a matter of habit. He longed to Read something, to open himself to existence, but he still hesitated.
He was afraid of the Emperor’s Intent. Giving in to it meant submerging himself in a man he hated.
But on the other hand…
He couldn’t escape Urg’naut. With every breath that passed, the emptiness around him seemed to grow deeper. He was losing himself.
And deep inside, a part of him that had not yet given into the fear refused to go quietly.
The Emperor had Read Elders before.
If Calder could learn something from the Intent the man had left behind, he had to try. There was nothing left to lose.
So Calder threw aside his barriers, opening his Reader’s senses wide. The Emperor’s Intent, which had tried to force its way into his consciousness for so long, now found nothing stopping it.
How do I resist Elder Intent? Calder focused on this question, searching for an answer.
But he got more.
Too much.
The metal warps under his touch. It’s white-hot, and he uses his powers to cause it to hold that color, to be stained white for all time. This armor will be the ultimate shield, and he has seen beyond the heavens. The guardians above this world armor themselves in white.
To him, white is the color of protection.
The Emperor wears the crown and looks down from his public throne.
“I am the first Reader. The Guild of Magisters has no authority over my teachings.”