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“Those bastards.” Spit splattered from his lips, voice trembling. “It was all about politics. They didn’t care about our plan. This was about power. It wasallabout power.”

I blinked a few times, listening to that again in my mind. Nix had told me that Lux had gone to Matriaza in preparation for the visit he was setting out on in the morning. Was that what he was referencing? “The Conclave?”

“Yes. I—I was there to discuss logistics. That’s why Nix and the others were going tomorrow. When I mentioned it, they were incredibly vague. Everything was vague. Every word that came out of their mouths. It—There was more to it than that. So much happened. I was suspicious because of their responses, or the lack thereof, but I-I pressed. We’re approaching that time, no?” He looked up, and I saw the tears rolling down his cheeks. “We only have a few thousand years before the maalaichte cnihme return now, and we need to make sure the plan is in place.”

“Aye, that’s what you were there for.”

He nodded quickly, seeming relieved that I was still on his side. “Exactly. We always had a plan. And when I mentioned it, about locations. Where to bring the people when the war begins, they said all they’d give us was a little town north of the capital. I said that wouldn’t be enough room, and I suggested the lower continent, and they… They laughed at me, Véa.”

“But we have millions. Even Altum Babage wouldn’t be enough for half of our people.”

“That’s what I said. And they said no. Only that one small city.”

I was ready to snap that they could all go fuck themselves, but those tears rushing down Lux’s face… They weren’t ones of fear. The inward curve of his shoulders told me that he was ashamed.

“What are their plans for the rest of our population?”

His lip quivered, and he shook his head.

“They expect us to leave them?”

“Not leave them.Givethem, Véa.” He swatted his damp cheeks. “They want us to hand them over as payment for the allotted time we’ve spent here.”

“But they knew our plan.” I shook my head, face screwing up in confusion. “We had agreements. There was a deal—”

“The deal was a fucking joke. We had a deal, but they were making ones without us. We didn’t understand all the contingencies because they were hiding them from us. They lied to us, Véa. They used our creations. We were sheep to shepherds waiting to be slaughtered. They—”

“Wait.” I played that over in my mind, hearing that sentence again. “Were? What do you meanwere?”

He couldn’t look at me.

He squeezed his trembling hands to fists, and his legs began to quiver.

Chest tightening, searching for his gaze, I said, “What did you do, Lux?”

“I told you.” He still wouldn’t look at me, voice more uncomfortable than I’d ever heard it. “I’ve done something awful.”

That much is clear, you bumbling fool. “And what is it?”

Silence as he stared at the ground.

“Damn it, Lux.” I leaned across the table and grabbed his chin, wrenching his face toward mine, much like I’d done to my daughter this afternoon when she wouldn’t stop pulling her sister’s hair. “What the fuck did you do?”

His eyes were already watery. That sentence opened the floodgates. They drenched his face like the rainfall of a storm. Hardly audible amidst his sobs, he said, “I killed them. I killed them all.”

That much, I’d inferred.

I still held his chin, waiting for an explanation, for details, but all he did was sob.

“What do you mean you killed them all?”

“I-I lost control. I told them I was coming back here to tell you, and to tell Nix, and they-they tried to kill me. I just—Lightning started crashing all through the room. It shattered the domed ceiling, and it hit every one of them, and then it wouldn’t—” An obnoxious, bone curdling weep. “It wouldn’t stop.I couldn’t stop.”

Slowly, I released his chin and leaned back. The domed ceiling. There was only one place on Matriaza I knew of with a domed ceiling: the Conclave Hall.

Since the first time I’d stepped into that room, I’d considered burning it to the ground. The men and women who ruled when I was crowned queen of that world had no such right. It was given to them by birth, and they exploited every ounce of power they possessed to oppress those of inferior wealth or sex. The politics on Matriaza had seen much reform in the millenniums since we’d left, or so I’d thought. But if Lux was telling the truth, which I could pick his mind for confirmation of, this wasn’t the worst news imaginable.

If the Conclave had made an agreement with the maalaichte cnihme, if they offered the souls of earth which we’d created, rather than shelter them when those monsters returned, this wasn’t so bad. No, it wasn’t ideal to massacre hundreds of lords and ladies. But I still held the title of queen, just as Nix held the title of king. If I phrased that sentence differently, if I saw it as Lux executing men and women who’d committed treason against their leaders, perhaps it wasn’t all bad.