Zodiac Academy 8: Sorrow and Starlight

“How bad is it, Vard?” I growled, standing in front of the red doors which would lead me to the balcony overlooking the crowd outside the Court of Solaria. The room I was in was huge, large enough to accommodate my Dragon form at least three times over, and there were grand paintings on the walls depicting my succession to greatness. Floorboards ran the length of the space and opulent white couches sat around it, along with golden statues of my kind that I had brought here.

“Um,” Vard hesitated, moving to straighten my tie, and I slapped his hands away, grabbing his shirt in my fist, then yanking him closer as smoke seeped between my bared teeth.

“How. Bad. Is. It?” I snarled.

“Do you want me to sugar coat it?” he stammered, his good eye wild with terror.

“No. I do not want you to sugar coat it, you fool. I want the truth. The cold, hard, fucking truth. And if you do not give it to me in the next three seconds, I will dismember you and feed you to Lavinia.”

“A-alright, sire,” he gave in, dropping to his knees and bowing his head in submission. “The kingdom is in uproar, Your Highness. The people are losing faith in you. They want answers. They cannot easily deny the truth that has been presented to them among Francesca Sky’s memories.”

A growl rolled through my chest, and I contained the urge to break some bones in my snivelling Seer’s body. At least until I returned to the palace later tonight.

That bitch had caused me more trouble than I had ever imagined possible, and the Vega girl I kept caged had secured this fate. She must have gotten that memory loop out of my palace during the attack, handing it to her disgusting allies.

I seethed, rage blossoming through me like a cold, dark winter that would never end.

But I pushed a hand over my hair and fixed my features into concern, the face of a man who would not be so easily accused of murder.

“Open the doors,” I commanded and Vard scrambled that way, pulling them wide for me.

I raised my chin, walking out onto the balcony, and a tumult of angry shouts slammed against me. The crowd was lit by Faelights and the press were there, angling their cameras at me, waiting to capture every moment of this.

I raised my hands, asking for silence and the crowd simmered down. My heart was thundering out a shaky beat in my chest, but I didn’t let it show on my face. I had to be solemn, I had to regain their trust, or my reign could come under threat.

“Friends,” I called, amplifying my voice with a flash of magic, a round of boos coming in response and unsettling me. I moved forward, curling my hands over the railing and keeping my perfectly crafted mask in face. “Listen. Do you not owe your humble king a moment to speak in response to the despicable lies being spread about me?”

People frowned, sharing looks and the press lapped it up, one of the cameramen even licking his lips as I felt that lens zoom in on me.

“Yes, we must let our king explain.” Gus Vulpecula moved to the front of the cordoned off area where many of my Dragons were positioned to hold the crowd back. “He will quell our fears! Let him speak!”

“Yes, let him speak!” someone else called, and the murmurs hushed down again.

I wetted my mouth and prepared to give them the speech I had been preparing from the moment I’d found about what that fucking filthy Pegasus had printed about me in The Daily Solaria. This was a hiccup, nothing more. I could handle it. I would handle it.

Sweat began to collect on my brow and I tried to loosen the tie at my throat a little, the quiet pressing in on me as they waited for me to speak.

“The rebels have been plotting this for some time. Francesca Sky was among them, and yes, it was I who killed her when I discovered her treachery. To protect our kingdom.”

“Murderer!” someone yelled, and fire burned the back of my throat, but I simply hung my head in sadness before going on, acting as if this burden weighed heavily on my back. It did of course, but not for the reasons they all believed.

“Francesca Sky was an immensely powerful Cyclops, able to forge memories and feed them to her rebel accomplices. She has painted me out to be a savage villain to try and sway my kingdom against me. But she went too far, you see? For it is preposterous when you truly examine it. So many memories, from me ruthlessly killing my own beloved brother, to me somehow being responsible for all the atrocities Hail Vega committed during his reign. She has concocted this fantasy and tried to make you all swallow it. But what Fae in this realm could be capable of so many abominations?” I scoffed and some of the faces in the crowd softened, their rage turning to thoughtfulness as they listened to me. Sheep, the lot of them. Easily led to slaughter, and I would do so now, a butcher wearing a smile and promising them green pastures in my company. “Am I to be responsible for every crime in history? Am I to be blamed for levelling entire cities by wielding the Savage King as my puppet somehow?”

“We saw it. You used Dark Coercion on Hail Vega!” some little fucking whore shouted up at me, pointing an accusing finger.

I held a hand to my heart in shock. “How could one Fae control a man such as him? He was the most powerful Fae of his time. And I served him dutifully, year after year. I did what I could to stop his tyranny, I tried to curb his rages, but what was I to do? If I wanted to take his throne, I could have challenged him. Surely that would have been a far simpler way to seize power instead of trying to control his mind or some nonsense.” I shook my head.

“You would have lost that fight, that’s why you used forbidden magic to control him!” a man bellowed, and I narrowed my eyes at him.

“So which is it? Am I so powerful that I had the Savage King under my control or not powerful enough to have challenged him? Surely if I were capable of manipulating him as such, then I would have to be deemed the more powerful of us anyway, and if that was so then why didn’t I enter into that challenge?” My words spun circles around their doubts, binding them up in their own confusion. Some might think that I was more powerful than Hail Vega for manipulating him the way I had, and I might even agree with that, but it wasn’t the narrative they needed, so it wasn’t the one they would get. For now.

“What about the Nebular Inquisition Centres?” another man cried. “My sister has been taken to one, and I haven’t heard from her since. You’re murdering Fae in those centres. If you have nothing to hide, then let us see inside them.”

A cheer of ascent went up and I nodded, having been prepared for this.

“I, of course, will allow the public to visit the centres. There are two in this very city which I will open the doors to tomorrow, and you will see that they are simple interrogation centres. Designed to find and stop terrorists from rising up among us and hurting our people.”

I had several of my most loyal court members working on it now, Linda Rigel heading up the division to ensure the centres were fit for inspection. There would be no trace of cruelty, no single drop of blood to be viewed within them when those doors were opened tomorrow. And I had made sure a new segment of Sphinxes and Minotaurs had been rounded up to be sent to them, none of them ever having stepped into a centre before. They would be treated well, and their stories would be released to the press immediately, proving the rebels’ wrong in their findings. It was a pain, but it was necessary. Sometimes the people didn’t know what was best for them; it was the burden of the masses to remain ignorant, and the burden of the powerful to keep them so for their own good.

I would have to tirelessly re-establish my image now, and those fucking rebels were to blame. When I found their new stronghold, I would make sure every one of them was cut to pieces slowly, feeling every ounce of pain this world could offer them before I snuffed out their worthless lives.

Music started up somewhere in the crowd, and a cold lick of dread dragged up the length of my spine as I recognised the fucking song that had been played in The Orb at Zodiac Academy, my own voice taunting me as my words were twisted into a rebellious provocation.

“Turn that off!” I barked, losing it for a moment and the crowd looked between themselves for the perpetrator, but none was produced.

I hunted for the source and my Dragons pushed into the masses to try and find it too, but then I noticed it was coming from the ground itself, the music rumbling beneath the street and growing louder by the second.

I had wards in place all around the Court, but I suddenly realised I had not thought to cover the sewers.

Mildred Canopus stepped on top of a manhole cover and went shooting into the air as the whole thing was propelled skyward by a blast from below, a scream of pure terror leaving her as a spray of shit flew up after her. Another drain exploded and more faeces was flung into the air, the crowd scattering in an instant as screams went up and chaos ensued. The music boomed out of the sewers and I turned to flee inside, my Dragon Guardians shifting everywhere in a bid to protect me from the showers of shit.

But before I could make it inside, a Griffin shot out of one of the drains with a lilac-haired girl on its back who had a bird-like mask on her face, the rebel angling a hand towards me and air magic sending every spurt of shit my way in a spinning vortex.

I cast an air shield behind me, running inside and knocking into Vard, the useless Seer not even seeing me coming as the two of us went flying to the ground. A guttering feeling spread through my chest, and I gasped in terror as access to my magic was locked down.

“What’s happening?!” I bellowed and Vard winced as spittle flew from my mouth.

“I asked the FIB to set off anti-magic spells to keep you safe from the rebels,” he blurted.

In the next second, shit was raining down on us, splattering me all over and slapping into Vard’s ugly face beneath me. I roared in fury, staggering to my feet, but the blast of it only increased, sending me tumbling head over heels through the room, flipping upside down over a couch and slamming into a wall.

Mildred’s huge Dragon form flew up to block the blast, taking it all to her chest and face as she spread her wings to rescue me, but the damage was done.

I cried out as the Griffin shit mixed into the sewage got in my eyes, burning so deep that I screamed in agony.

I wiped the shit from my eyes, squinting to find two of my Dragon Guardians running into the room to protect me, flanking me, and raising their hands.

“You can’t access your fucking magic in here,” I barked, and they took that as a command to shift, the two of them exploding into their huge Dragon forms and squeezing me between them. And not just anywhere between them, oh no, right between their fucking bare assholes, one on either side of my face as their tails swept through the space above me.

“MOVE THIS INSTANT!” I bellowed, my voice muffled by the press of their scaly backsides, and they both reacted so quickly that I was sent flying down into a pile of shit again.

“My King!” Vard wailed, trying to escape the never-ending blast of faeces, slipping and sliding in the filth as he tried to get to me.

I skidded along on my knees, crawling my way out of the room as curses poured from my tongue and the stench made it unbearable to breathe.

“Find who did this!” I yelled. “Bring them to me at once!”

When I was out of range of the shit blast zone, I shoved to my feet and stalked away into the depths of the Court, hunting for a shower. I would have to wait here until my Guardians dealt with the mayhem outside, and until that lilac-haired girl was brought to me to be devoured bite by bite, I would never fucking rest.