Chapter 43 | PoV: Aisha
“Aisha!” Someone rocked her body. “Aisha!”
Aisha groaned, eyes fluttering open.
“You're alive!” The voice exclaimed, he took his hands off of Aisha's shoulders. “Heliux, you're alive? . . .”
Aisha squinted. A familiar face in blue robes was gazing down at her. He was on his knees. Aisha glanced around him, he still didn't have his left leg.
“Fazl,” she mumbled.
“That's me!”
Aisha was laying on her back. Cold numbed her back, through her robes. Aisha sat up. She wriggled her limbs. All her digits were accounted for.
Eugh, she had a particularly rough pillow. She turned and—oh.
The monster's corpse lay behind her. She had been resting on one of his elbows. Ew! Gross! She had been touching that evil man!
She felt empty. Numb. She had killed the Prince. He had murder dozens, probably hundreds—not even with his rituals, but also because of his city maintenance. Good riddance.
So why did she feel this way? . . .
Aisha turned back around. The strange man that could turn invisible also lay on the raised platform's floor. Also dead. Wow, yet another kill . . . again, nothing but numbness. These were both bad people. Aisha had already killed people before. Those two mages that had tried to assassinate her—whatever! She had broken into the palace and committed regicide. Just another day!
Hmm. Aisha was missing something . . .
Aisha looked around for her staff. It sat just out of reach. She leaned forward and snatched it up. Her best friend! Her one constant through the murder and the—
She stopped and stared at her hand. Then . . . her other hand. She didn't think she was supposed to be that color.
“Are you . . . feeling okay?” Fazl asked. “It's weird, right?”
“Fazl . . . Why am I gray?” Aisha's skin was gray, like dusty stone. There were hints of purple throughout, though not blood veins, more like a vague patchwork of splotches. She looked diseased.
Fazl shrugged. “Beats me.”
Aisha gasped. Wait, how could she gasp if—“I'm not breathing.”
Fazl blinked.
Aisha blinked too. “I'm not breathing! I don't have a heartbeat either! I'm dead.”
“You look alive to me.”
“I'm dead!”
“If you say so,” Fazl dismissed. “Sooo . . . What now?”
What now indeed? Actually, there was something Aisha wanted to know first. “How long have I been out?”
Fazl shrugged. “A couple minutes maybe. It has only been fifteen or so since you left me at the entrance to this place.”
Aisha sighed with relief. Right. [Temporal Sundering] had probably cut off some time. Really, all of that took, like, fifteen minutes?
“How are you feeling?” Fazl asked.
Aisha paused for a moment. Aisha stood, feeling her body. It ached and throbbed. She should have felt pain, but didn't. “Terrible.”
Fazl just nodded, like he had expected that.
“Let's . . . Let's haul up the monst—the Prince's corpse and announce to the plaza that he's dead."
“G—great plan. Yep. That won't go terribly at all.”
Aisha gave him a flat stare. “The legislature exists. The city will be fine.”
“You forgot the part where the head legislator is dead, but sure, yeah, ‘fine.’ Let's go with that. ‘Fine.’”
Ah. That. Right.
Rafiq.
Aisha blinked. She should have felt grief and sorrow. There should have been a pit in her stomach.
She felt nothing.
☆ ☆ ☆
Fazl pushed open the palace doors with his hands while flying. On their way out of the palace, they had passed by the foyer, which was mostly cleaned up. A couple of servants and other staff had scurried away at the sight of Aisha and Fazl.
Fazl flew out and into the plaza. The suns shone down through the tempest and into almost-midday lighting. People bustled about, as usual.
There was a distinct lack of royal guards. Only four remained, talking with various groups of people. There was someone from the government investigators, then a pair of mages. A secretariat from the legislature was there too. All of them stayed quite a bit away from the palace.
Heads turned as Fazl floated forward. Aisha stepped out into the sunlight carrying the corpse of the Prince.
The guards turned and blinked, faces paling. The others acted similarly, faces turning shocked or confused. Some people jumped.
Aisha made sure that they saw the Prince. Then, she disrespectfully tossed his corpse onto the ground in front of her.
A few of the guards turned and talked amongst themselves.
One of the guards turned and cleared his throat. “Aisha Of-Jinan, Fazl Of-Salama, you are under ar—”
“What are your demands?” The second guard cut the first off, kicking him in the leg.
The first scowled at the second, then turned to Aisha and Fazl. “You're under arrest for the—”
The second kicked him again.
“What is your problem?”
“They killed His Highness. There were a dozen bodies in the palace. We can't fight them.”
“Hey, why's she all gray?” A third asked.
“The monarchy of Glorestra is over,” Aisha announced, projecting her voice.
A few people behind the crowd of important individuals stopped to watch. Most only offered fleeting glances before hurrying away.
“He has murdered maybe hundreds. He raided orphanages and absorbed them for his powers. He framed the killing of the temporal mages on me. The body of the real assassin is down in the palace basement.”
Hushed voices spoke to each other.
“The palace has a basement?”
“Can we believe Of-Jinan?”
“The Prince wouldn't do that.”
“This city will be entirely legislature-run. I joke that a new head-legislator is appointed, although not after the ceremony remembering Rafiq,” Aisha continued.
“You're not diseased, are you?” A guard spoke up.
Aisha scowled at him. He stepped back. “I have something far worse.”
The secretariat pushed himself forward. “We cannot stand up to you, that much is true. May we ask for your self-imposed exile? We do not want you plaguing this city any longer. You have killed His Highness. You have a strange affliction—”
“It’s not contagious. The Prince had it. You didn't exile him. I have done nothing wrong.”
Something danced or pulsed inside of Aisha. The strange white orb she had gathered from the Prince.
Aisha may have absorbed the Prince's necrotic mage type somehow. She hadn't even done any ritual killing as he had, not on a slab or chanting any spell. Yet, she had died, and here she was, alive. She could feel the necrotic mana pooling around her just as temporal mana did. Had Aisha also obtained the Prince's aeolian magic, and the magic of whoever else he killed and incorporated? Aisha hadn't seemed to have gotten the magic from the invisible man.
The secretariat swallowed. “For social order. We ask that you leave. Surely you understand. Unless you are going to usurp the royal seat and instate yourself as a tyrant. This entire situation is a mess. Our hierarchy is in tatters. Too many people have died, and you stand in the middle of it all.”
“Exile!” A guard echoed.
“Exile!” Another voice called.
Soon, half of the gathered crowd was shouting for exile.
Aisha felt nothing. She should have been disappointed. Maybe angry. Why didn't the people listen to her? Why did they want her gone? She had saved them all, and they didn't know it. And they wouldn't believe it. They dared to defy her despite her immense power. They called for exile because they knew they couldn't imprison her.
They were hoping she had good will and sense enough to see herself out.
Why?
Why didn't they bow down to her like a queen or a princess?
“You have your aeolian mage. We will contract a willing thermal mage to you. You will leave the city once that is done,” the secretariat continued. “We will clean up your . . . mess.”
Aisha glanced at Fazl. He looked back at her with a frown.
“Don't bother looking for a thermal mage.” She would tell them not to bother with Fazl either, but . . .
“Of-Jinan? You'll need one to leave the city.”
“No. I won't.” The white orb thrummed inside of her.
Fazl tilted his head at her.
“Are you coming with me?” Aisha looked his way.
“I'm exiled too, aren't I?”
“I think that is advisable,” the secretariat nodded once.
Hmm. What did she do? She didn't want to slaughter these people. She didn't want to rule. How could she get them to see her side and let her stay? How could she know or trust them to keep order?
The answer was simple.
She didn't.
“Let's go, bird boy,” Aisha grinned.
Fazl grinned. “Sure thing, princess.”
Aisha and Fazl turned and headed northward. Through a side street by the palace, outside of the plaza.
“So. Why won't we need a thermal mage? You plan on getting consumed by a bunch of heat and dying?”
Aisha revealed a sly smile. “You'll see.”