Page 30 of The Night Prince

Pride And Prejudice

Earlier…

“You think this is over?You think you’ve defeated me and saved the Adamantine Empire?”Ikkut Grieffinger the Ghoul gasped as black blood frothed on her rotten lips.Her clawed right hand pressed against a hideous gash in her side.More blood pooled around her fallen form.But despite the nearness of her demise, she was smiling and let out a cackling laugh. “You fools!He is coming!The Night King Xelroth Vex is coming!”

Just the name caused the shadows to grow darker.Silence fell over the battlefield as if even the dead were waiting to see if pronouncing his name would make the dread Kindreth king appear. Would glowing ruby-colored eyes flash in the darkest reaches of the cavern?Would hair like a waterfall of silver silk swirl in the cold wind? Would skin pale as the Moon give him a ghostly radiance?And would the familiar taste of ozone fill the air from the massive amounts of magic that swirled around him like a cloak of stars?

None who stood before the Night King had lived to tell the tale.

Would the same be true of these heroes?

Finley tapped his pen against the journal where he’d written those words and sighed.The scene would go something like that.Of course, his players would–unwittingly, for the most part–derail his carefully detailed plans.For example, they’d likely cut off Ikkut’s head before she could say a word let alone the speech he’d written..He’d need a backup plan, which would allow the ghoul to still speak even with a severed head.

But what if they crushed her skull under a boot?That would put a kibosh on the talking thing from her body in any case. He would need a backup plan for the backup plan. Maybe Vex could summon her ghost to speak.Yeah, that sounded good.That would mean a direct connection between Vex and Ikkut.The assumption would be that the Night King had been watching the heroes’ progress and measuring their worthiness to be his foes before he made his grand entrance.

But would this whole death scene be dramatic enough?

And would it really capture the full dread of Xelroth Vex?

It was hard, in general, to synthesize lore into a moment, to introduce a character of such importance and get across everything one wanted to in a few lines.But go on too long and it would not work either.But there was simply so much to Vex. The Night King had started as aheroafter all.The fact that he ultimately became a dark god… Well, that just made him all the more interesting to Finley and an excellent antagonist. More Darth Vader than Darth Sidious.An arc.A tragic past.The possibility of redemption?Hmmm, he’d have to think about this.

It was his need to find out more about Vex that had spurred Finley to go to the Guardian’s Athenaeum–or thelibraryin human parlance–even though he’d had to get Glass Scholar Neldor Loravye’s permission to look at any of the books.He and Neldor had ahistory.

I told him what I saw through one of the rifts and he pitied me.A scared human who claimed to have glimpsed the fabled Kindreth city of Illithor.His sad little smile as he said I was mistaken said it all.Yeah, real history there between us.

The irritating thing was that Finley admired Neldor.He’d used the Glass Scholar’s many works as the basis for most of his research for his games.Neldor’s clear, concise language made history accessible.Finley had gotten lost in hisMysteries of the Forgotten Realms, an 1000-page tome that he literally could not put down even when the sheer weight of it had cut off circulation to his thighs.But there was no mutual respect.And he’d feared what Neldor would say when he asked to check out books regarding the Night King.

“Finley, the library is foreveryone,” Gemma had pointed out as she’d tugged on his arm to lead him towards the front desk where Neldor actually sat.

The Sun Elf was the head of the Academy, but it had been last summer when Finley had made to brave the library, and the Academy was on break.Evidently, though he was the most important person in Aravae scholarship, Neldor did not think it beneath himself to man the front desk.Which was yetanotherreason that Finley admired him.Neldor didn’t behave as if any act involving scholarship was too insignificant.

“Maybe if we just wait until someone else takes over for the Glass Scholar, that would be a better idea,” Finley had responded and had prepared to exit the soaring golden-domed entryway to the Guardian’s Athenaeum before Neldor noticed them.

But, despite being just twelve-years-old at the time, Gemma held him firmly where he was.“Nope.That could be hours from now.Or never.He could be here until the library shuts for the night.”

“I’ll come tomorrow–”

“And lose a whole twenty-four hours?I think not!You have a game to prepare for!”Gemma gave him a hard stare that was eerily reminiscent of the one her mother, Shonda, gave politicians who stood in her way.They all quailed before her and Finley was man enough to admit that he was quailing before her preteen daughter.

“If only we still had the internet, right?You would think the Aravae would agree having information easily accessible by anyone would be a plus,” Finley said.

He still missed the weight of his iPhone in his pocket, the smooth slide of his finger over the silky glass, and the thought that nearly every single bit of human knowledge was accessible from the palm of his hand.But no more.The internet, like everything else of the modern human world, was gone.

“Sandy told me that the Separatists are working on something.Anintranet, if nothing else.Something that they can all access locally,” Gemma said with a shrug.

“Really?”He blinked.“Wait, do Michael and Shonda know about that?”

Gemma rolled her eyes at him.Hard.“If Sandy knows then yes, our parents know.”

“Yeah, I phrased that badly.I mean do they think it’s going to work?”

“I’m sure they’re both keeping an eye on it.But probably not,” she admitted.“Just keeping the lights on for a few hours takes most of the Separatist’s resources so I doubt it will work long term.”

“You aren’t thinking of sneaking into Hope again?”he asked.

“Me?”She narrowed her eyes at him.“I believe it wasyouwho wanted cotton candy the last time we went.”

“Yeah, they have thepinkkind.Hard as a rock.Stale as can be.But still so good,” he sighed with remembered pleasure.

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