The Aeterna Empire

Chapter 15.3 - What was Inevitable

While those around me questioned the validity of Adam the Aeterna's claim to judge them, I was wholy unable to speak as the reality of our circumstance crushed me. Like a puzzle sliding into place with the final piece linking it all together, I came to understand that the terrible future I had envisioned was not only an inevitability, but far worse than I had imagined.

Adam was a legend, a man said to have existed generations ago and started the Numerenai guild soon after the collapse of the Ref Empire. The name had appeared again and again as the leader of this guild as a title. 

The Ref Empire had been destroyed by the Night-Blood first, but then also the sun brought its power upon it to sink the whole continent beneath the waves. The very sun Adam, bearing the title of Aeterna, brought down on Ire no less than five times in the last month. 

Was Adam truly a title or was this the same man to have led the guild, and was he involved in the destruction of an entire continent? The implication could decide everything. Adam had made unusual statements before, referring to my teacher Abhdan as 'young man', to which I had played off as humor. 

How old is Adam? How long as he been planning this world-spanning empire?

Then there is the matter of Izthark. Why would Adam, or the Aeterna or whichever title and name he bore at the time, send a Sleepless to safeguard an enemy? Was Izthark an assassin? No, he had protected me on numerous occassions and had more than a dozen chances to kill me himself. Was he a spy? If so he was one of the worst spies I have met, never once probing for information nor caring about the messages I sent out across Ire. While Izthark did insist on me heading north instead of to the capital where I was ultimately captured, it was in a choice prompted by him revealing information no spy or hidden agent would ever provide within a scenario to which they would never wish a choice to be chosen.

I hold no grudge against Izthark. Despite our brief time together I did come to appreciate and like him for his quirks, but nor do I hold any lie to my heart to think it was ever true. I do not feel betrayed. You cannot be betrayed by someone who was never loyal to begin with, and even before this reveal of his true loyalty he made it abudently clear his loyalty, at the very least, did not extend to me.

What spy or hidden agent would make it clear they are not loyal to you? For what purpose would any assassin protect me? What reason would my enemy ever assign one of his own to judge his rivals on merits and to openly accept them as worthy of life, of safeguarding, and of honor should the spy come to his own determination independant of the master?

Who is Adam the Aeterna?

My hands shook with the questions to which there would be no answer. At least not here, because here we would not be the ones questioning The Aeterna and judging him, but the reverse.

Many angry questions and statements from my peers were thrown at him, but the Aeterna simply said, "I will judge you on my own standard. If I decide it, you will die. If I decide it, you will live and join us into the new world. For now, observe."

Turning towards the capital, the Aeterna stepped up to the edge of the cliff from where the plains could be plainly seen. The capital laid before us in its glory and in front of it four armies of Kes marshaled themselves to defend it. The land was full of men and soldiers as far as the eye could see. On the Aeterna's side, on the cliff, was but a single army comprised of metal men from Soran and rather scrappy-looking soldiers from Ne.

The Aeterna lifted his right hand until his palm faced the sun. The Ne around us roared in approval and stomped their feet until the ground shook. The hair on the back of my neck rose.

I jumped to my feet, only to immediately be slammed down by the teleporting armored woman. She stomped me into the ground with her foot on my neck, yet even so, I squirmed and struggled to reach him. "NO!" I yelled. "No, please!"