Chapter 385: The Three Day War - Final Day
Lapins van Montmorency tried hard to keep her eyes forward and her bearing regal as she marched into the city at the head of an army of former slaves.
It had been a rushed thing, organizing them all, and so Lapins had maintained no illusions of discipline or order as they began to filter into the city. The group that stayed behind her were resistance leaders, Kordia, and Kassin - with Amarena far behind in her full knight regalia, which covered her face and hid her tail behind a cape.
There was no fanfare to her arrival. She had no standing with the lordsmoot, nor her father’s councilors. Instead, the sounds of joy echoed behind her as the formerly enslaved from the city fell out of line to embrace their families.
Those slaves with nowhere else to go continued to walk, and in solidarity with them, Lapins walked barefoot and without finery or armor - except for her princess crown, which Amarena had rushed to her after Kir’s conquest of the city.
The signs of that conquest rose into the air as smoke, but with none of the charnel stench of burning dead. That, somehow, was far scarier for her than knowing he had survived a direct strike from Heaven. Remembering that tale made her look towards Mt. Morens. The exposed, skeletal serpent wound its way around the trunk-shaped mount, its eyes staring emptily toward the lake.
But she could not stare for long, as she arrived at the castle’s main yard. Kir sat upon the steps leading up to the castle, casually, as if he were simply enjoying the cool day. As if there was not an angel-shaped stain in black upon the wall behind him. The pressure from his mana was like walking into a cloud, and as soon as she thought to bring up her manasight, she saw the heatless blaze that surrounded him.
Her parents and brothers knelt before him. There was no sign of the King’s Privy Council or any member of the Lordsmoot. The army had been ordered into the city to maintain peace during the transition of power.
Having trained in the art of controlling her mana, Lapins made her way forward alone as the former slaves and curious citizens shrank from the oppression of Kir’s mana, at least as much as they could with the crowd pushing them from behind. A crude semicircle began to form behind Lapins, and Kir - in his war form but with his face hidden behind a mask of bone - stood, cracking the marble beneath his clawed feet.
"At last, the final scion of Montmorency comes before me," Kir’s voice boomed, amplified by magic. The crunching sounds as he descended the steps were dramatic. Kordia, Kassin, and Amarena were making their way around Kir’s aura, the former two putting up some shielding to allow the crowd closer. "The angels have fled this land. Their weapon failed to kill me, as did their ambassador and all their Elevated." Kir plucked the crown from the head of her father and cast it at her feet.
It was all part of the performance.
"Without Heaven, what power has that crown?" Kir asked her. "Silence was your father’s answer. Your mother’s. Your siblings’."