Anguis had made his way back to the Academy, and by the time night had half gone he was standing on the edge of the field. Sure enough, Ardena was waiting for him there.
She was standing still, almost completely, with her general's sword out and resting point down against the ground. Of course, Anguis didn't expect that she would need to use it. And he certainly didn't need the reminder that Regus gave him. He wasn't an idiot.
He stepped out onto the field. The packed dirt was hard under his feet, no longer radiating the warmth he had felt from it during the day. Everything here was cold and dark.
Everything except her.
Her power pulsed along underneath her skin like rivers raging over their banks. It was quite a unique phenomenon.
"Do you know what they call it?" she asked, her voice quiet but easily carrying across the silent space between them.
Anguis didn't respond. He did, but this moment would help her open up to him.
"The Emperor's Curse," she said. "They say that whoever has it was born to rule."
"Unfortunate that you were born after the time of the monarchs," Anguis responded, lowering his own voice to a bare whisper as he drew up beside her.
The Emperor's Curse. One of the many factors that contributed to the idea that they knew next to nothing about abilities.
Instead of her skin changing color, the color moved along under her skin, patterned as though flowing. But that was the official definition. Now that he could see it under nothing but the slight illumination of a few distant lights and the crescent moon high above, it was obvious to him that it was moving. The Emperor's Curse was alive.
How alive exactly, that remained to be seen.
"Why did you call me here?" Anguis asked.
"Hashim Kamal," was the only response she gave.
Anguis nodded slowly. It made sense that she had found that. She had access to everyone's files through the Academy's leaders, so why wouldn't she know their name?
She turned her head to look at him, and after a second of internal debate, Anguis turned his as well and met her eyes.
They were both nothing like and also identical to what he had expected. People were never simple, but Ardena's complexity was different than others. Her mind had borne the strain of countless battles, death surrounding her on all sides, always. There was a hollowness there that little else could produce.
Yet still, they were exactly as he had been told. Two bright silver spots that seemed to peer out of the shadows around her. It was like those idealistic posters they had seen passed around at meetings of artists that they had attended with one of their foster parents.
And it was true, her eyes shone with a sense of hope and radiated safety, but it was a front. There was no depth to them, like a solid color painted on.
A mask.
"How does it feel?" he asked softly.
"Like the world's collapsing around me," she said after a pause. "And it's my job to stop it."
"It isn't," Anguis murmured. "You don't have to bear that responsibility."
"Who else would?" she asked. In this moment, she did not sound like the great General Ardena. She sounded like a little girl, like any other.
A terrified girl.
Their world was becoming more unstable, fast. Their empire was collapsing, and their continent would soon fall prey to the others across the sea.
And this poor woman was the first line of defense.
Ostensibly, she was just fighting monsters. But every mission was a publicity stunt, each story a declaration to other continents that they would not bow. All of it rested on her, and she knew it.
If they saw weakness, they would strike.
"We're only at the top because it came to us first," Anguis said, voicing his thoughts so that she could feel included. And he knew she shared his concerns. She witnessed them, after all. In recent times, foreign dignitaries had come to share "peaceful talks", and had left with stories of the shocking power wielded by the empire.
But no one suspected that that power would stay with them forever. Eventually, it would move off of their continent. Like any disease, it would spread, slower with restricted travel, but it would spread.
Boats and resources still came and went, and each one increased the risk and decreased the time.
"As soon as it spreads, everyone will have it. And they'll all be coming for us," Ardena whispered, speaking dark truths into the night, and shuddering as though the very mentioning of them might cause her deepest fears to come true.
"Yes," Anguis said gravely. Technically they didn't know that. Technically.
But that was how it worked. Whoever ruled was the largest target. Sure, the other kingdoms might bicker for a bit over the second and third place and so on, but in the end, their empire would be overthrown.
Unless.
Unless Regus achieved his goal by then.
It was true that Regus wasn't quite powerful enough to destroy other kingdoms on his own. But with help from Ardena and other individuals with large power, who knew what was possible?
Ardena would take that chance, Anguis knew she would.
But it didn't have to fall on Regus. Their best warrior had still not awakened to his second mind, his duality.
Corpse is still basic. And the ability that he'll have, whatever it is...
It was almost unthinkable, but if Regus and Anguis truly were unlimited, as they seemed to be, then Corpse's duality mind could very well be able to defeat anyone and everyone.
"You asked who else could do it," Anguis said. It wasn't a question, not yet.
The question was in her eyes.
It was now or never.
Regus?
Do it yourself. She trusts you more.
It was true. It seemed that Ardena was drawn to his ability.
"I can."
He cast his eyes back over to her. She didn't look entirely disbelieving. That was a surprise even to him. She had already developed some faith. It seemed that he had some sort of bond to her that he didn't know about.
Anguis raised his hand and closed his eyes. He released some of his power.
And the field exploded.
Anguis watched as her eyes rolled back, and he smoothly stepped forward and caught her before she fell, cradling her head in one arm while the other held her waist.
Anguis slowly started to lower her to the ground, shifting to a crouch, then a kneeling position as he laid her down.
Her eyes were open, but sightless.
He had closed his eyes on purpose, after all. Even he wasn't sure what exactly she had seen.
Se he didn't exactly expect it when, upon waking, she immediately leapt up and embraced him.
"I can't do it anymore," She whispered into his ear. Small tears fell on his neck, and he was sure there were more on his back that he simply couldn't feel because of his shirt. They felt warm, like drops of wax from a candle.
"Save us, please," she said. Just as he had suspected, she was broken inside. With just the right push, she would collapse, shattering like a glass figure of a person.
And Anguis had given that push.
It took nearly ten minutes for her tears to stop. But even then, her mask was down. Her shoulders heaved with dry sobs as her trembling arms gripped him tighter, pulsing wildly with warmth from her Emperor's Curse.
General Ardena would serve him, when the time came. He was sure of it.
But this reaction was stronger than even he had anticipated. He would have to be careful to regulate it, otherwise she would pour more and more of her emotional support on him, until he was supporting her fully.
If she couldn't leave him at all, while she certainly wouldn't be useless, she would be much less useful than if he could send her as a delegate, assassin, or general to handle a matter which he himself didn't have the time to.
Anguis realized, too late, that perhaps he should have built up a more solid infrastructure before doing this. The opportunity had simply been too great to resist.
Of course, there were brute-force ways of controlling someone's emotions, such as alcohol and substances like redew, but Anguis found them distasteful and boring. If he was honest with himself, he would admit that he actually looked forward to the challenge that it posed to balance her emotions as he built his empire from the ground up.
That posed another problem, however. As Regus had recently reminded him, while having two abilities may make him a demigod in the eyes of other people, there was an even if not greater chance that they would see him as an abomination.
Anguis thought about it, absently stroking a hand up and down Ardena's back, like she was a cat. It seemed to be helping somewhat, but not much. It didn't really matter, not yet.
Everything could be resolved once they discovered the true extent of their power.
Hashim Kamal had a long way to go before he was finished gaining power, both individually and among other people.
But Anguis knew that they were currently hurtling down the path, and they wouldn't stop until they reached the pinnacle.
It was an unachievable goal. Anguis didn't care.
Because they would reach it, or they would die trying.