Empyrean Iris Story Collection Vol. 4

The Death of Diplomacy

You could have broken the tension like a rod of glass. The room was trapped in a bubble of complete silence unbroken by any living thing as all those that did live held their breaths in anticipation. On the void side faces were lit in shock and concern, and on the Maker side bodies were tense with anticipation poised and leaning forward. In a way Adam felt he was an intruder on a moment that should have been intensely private, but the outcome would mean everything.

Lanus was their last card to play,and if this didn't work, he didn't know what would.

Looking at Lanus in the near silence, tall, strong, and regal, Adam was struck by a sudden and overwhelming sense of guilt. He had only ever heard stories of Lanus from Sunny. From what she described he had been everything you hope to have in a father, kind, patient, loyal and protective. He had done his best to protect Sunny in a world where she was not welcome.

And his death had been catastrophic.

A death that Adam had facilitated.

Lanus had died during the last push of the Steel Eye operation, and it was Adam himself that had struck the death blow, and it was his death that had caused Kazna's original spiral into revenge, something that once seemed small, but had primed her to become what she was.

Now, the universe was on the brink of ending, and Adam couldn't shake the guilt that secretly bubbled in the pit of his stomach.

The universe was ending and it was his fault.

Despite everything that had happened between him and Sunny, despite their slow movement through mistrust, to forgiveness, to friends and then to love, he had still never been able to forgive himself for what he had done to her father, for taking away one of the only people in her life that had ever protected her. Thinking about into made him sick, and looking at Lanus, fighting quietly to rectify his mistake was almost too much.

The meeting hadn't lasted more than a moment, but still waiting for Kazna's response took what seemed to be a lifetime. It wasn't until she reached up her hand, pressing the flat of lanus's palm to her cheek that Adam felt a spark of hope arrive in his chest. "Hijan Cheel." She said murmuring the words softly into the palm of his hand, "You have returned to me."

Everett and Noctus shifted nervously glancing back and forth between each other unsure what to do.

Renegade lurked at the back of the group arms crossed over her chest.

The expression on her face was difficult to read but somehow seemed to hold undertones of confusion.

"I have." Lanus said, he reached up his other hand, cupping her face in both of his palms, "I am only sorry I could not have come to you sooner."

It seemed things were going well.

Maybe...

Maybe the could end all of this here, maybe they could turn Kazna to their side, of course the Makers would want her to spend a couple of years in their little hell pit, but after a few thousand years Adam might not care so much considering that was plenty of time to raise his children and die peacefully.

He did his best to stifle the hope that was rising in his chest, but to do so wasn't entirely possible.

Reaching out with her lower set of arms, kazna took lanus's hands in hers. For once her expression held no hint of malice, or mockery. Disbelief slowly beginning to melt into excitement, "My love you are here.... " Her voice trailed off for a moment, jaw working to find words before squeezing his hands tightly in hers, "Come, come with me, come and be at my side Lanus."

Adam's heart sunk right down into his boots.

"I am so very close to the greatest achievement of my life. Winning the greatest war." She pulled him closer looking hard into his eyes, "Once you join me, everything shall be as it should be. With you at my side there is no power that can stand in our way." She reached up with her hands, gently caressing his face as if attempting to memorize its form simply by touch, but stopped as a dark expression passed over Lanus.