After midnight, Noir was buried in a small ceremony, on the grounds of the Lumin estate.
Only Kir, Sam, Kordia, Amarena, and Stella attended, with Lumin standing nearby.
Sam was distraught. Kir couldn’t bla them. They were pregnant. They’d lost all their friends.
Kir wished he could have been more present, but he’d been exhausted. He slept all through the day until evening, when he finally awoke to take care of his needs. Then, once more, he’d slept, until the next morning when Lumin arrived for a visit.
He’d been lying there with Kordia and Stella, who were still sleeping. He was staring up at the canopy over the bed, trying not to think. Amarena was passed out on the couch. Last night, they’d done little things to comfort each other.
Stella and Kir had been the most hurt, and Amarena seed hurt as well, though she covered it up with antagonistic bluster. Kordia had been supportive, worried more for them because she hadn’t known Noir all that long.
As soon as the latch started to click, Kir sat up. By the ti Lumin entered, with Terry behind her bearing a tray piled high with breakfast foods, Kir was sitting on the side of the bed, draped in a blanket. She ca to stand before him as Terry placed the tray on a small table.
"Chancellor," Kir greeted robotically. "Should I get dressed?" He’d worn the sa clothes until yesterday when he’d finally undressed to bathe with Kordia.
"No need. Besides, your clothes are filthy, except for your uniform pants, which are rely damaged. If you wish it, I shall have Terry fetch sothing your size. But don’t worry for now. I have little ti before the provisional City Council ets, butI wanted to be here to answer so questions. No doubt you have many."
Kir nodded. "Where’s Sam?" he asked.
"My most discreet maids are looking after Sam. Largely as a precaution against potential miscarriage. The stress that young one has been through..." Lumin sighed. "I have no doubt it will take them so ti to return to normal. As they are now... Well, they seem largely catatonic."
Kir felt his heart constrict at the thought of Sam losing their baby. That, he felt, would be another death on his hands... No. On Maledict’s hands...
"Control your anger, boy. Acting rashly now could spell doom for you and your companions." Lumin said firmly.
Kir looked over to the couch to find Amarena awake. Her eyes were wary and she tilted her head towards the inside of the couch, indicating her sword where she’d slipped it between the cushions. He frowned and shook his head a little, before returning his attention to Lumin.
"Was that a threat, Madam Chancellor?"
"A statent of fact. Now that the siege has ended and the city is damaged, many citizens are in distress. Looking for outlets. I have already sold the tale of your martyrdom, but it will take ti to capture their imaginations. It is a lie on which I am staking my life and the future of my house..."
"Why?"
"That, I will not say. Not at this ti. But rest assured that even without other reasons, the correspondences I shared with your mothers over the years have given a good impression of you and your potential."
Terry cleared his throat lightly. Lumin turned slightly and nodded.
"Now it is ti for to go," she said, "Please remain out of sight as much as possible. Everything I could retrieve of yours is stored in the chest by the door." She gestured, indicating the piece of furniture that had simply been part of the background until Kir noticed it.
"Don’t you want to know what happened at the Core?" Kir asked.
"I’ve inferred much. But also, what I don’t know cannot potentially co back to bite . For this eting with the Council, ignorance is my best shield."
Kir nodded grimly.
"Hm? Kir?" Kordia stirred awake. As she rose the sheet fell off her chest, but she clutched it back up as soon as she saw Lumin standing before Kir.
"No need to blush, Kordia, there’s nothing you have that I haven’t already seen," Lumin said. "We should et for tea, this afternoon. There is a project I wish to discuss with you."
With a short nod, she turned and left.
As soon as the door closed behind her, Kordia shifted closer until she was hugging Kir from behind.
"You slept so long... How are you feeling?"
Kir looked down at his wrists. At the slight glow hiding under his flesh. His veins, it seed, were replaced by magic, according to his imagination.
Avoiding the question, Kir asked about the Academy.
He learned that the students who’d gone into the other towers hadn’t gotten far before the whole thing ca down. The lowest of the connective bridges had held firm, but losing the bottommost floors ant that the Academy was currently suspended by only the four towers and its bridges. The students and cadets suffered so injuries but nothing more major than broken bones.
She and Amarena had fought off a small host of the shadowy demons Kir had seen, but they abruptly retreated as soon as the structure began to fall, spreading wings and flying out and around the lake.
As Kordia talked, Amarena stood, donning her clothes before approaching the table. Eating quietly as Kordia told the tale.
"We, um... found Stella wrapped up with another succubus... It was not what we expected... The other one fled when Amarena approached to attack."
Kir just nodded. He didn’t need details about that.
He’d spoken with everyone about what happened, and as Kordia’s update ran its course, he started to talk a bit more about the battle at the core. His hands tightened enough to leave tiny punctures from his claws when he talked about how Lucifer had been hired to circumvent the Forbidding.
The bard had fought defensively, after killing Noir, tricking Kir with sounds and flashes of light. The one ti he’d been forced to attack, backed into a pillar, Kir’s strike had taken his arm. The next ti he saw the demonkin man... He would not talk or wait. This he promised himself... and Noir.
By the sounds of it, as soon as Maledict had as much as he could take, he’d ordered an imdiate retreat. His army fled; the bulk of it through a single great portal— a Perdition portal. One that led through the space between the triune worlds.
It was suspected but not known if any demons had stayed behind.
Kir didn’t need to be a prophet to imagine how much people would fear demons being amongst them.
After all, he was one of those demons...
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