Chapter 422: Strange Friends
Amarena gripped the edge of one of the barely seaworthy vessels carrying less than a third of Kir’s Dukedom to the west.
No, a third was being generous. The camp had dissolved into chaos the moment Kir disappeared and his traitorous Generals failed to return. The majority of the army had abandoned them, aiming to march back east and north to re-occupy the former nation of Nyandor.
Even without challengers in power, the split had proved unavoidable as a second force split off to begin pillaging Montmorency. Char had done her best in those dark days, but the untimely appearance of Amrita’s army had forced them to choose.
In the end, what little was left of the army under Char was sacrificed to allow the precious days needed to fit eight thousand demons onto three boats, following the promise Kir made that they would find shelter in Norneau.
It was a promise Amarena doubted would go as easily as everyone hoped... especially now that Kir was gone, taken over by the side of himself he’d kept hidden.
Her grip tightened on the railing, splintering the untreated wood as she felt a stirring of rage from within. If only he’d told them sooner, she would have possibly made a better decision. Instead, she’d rushed to choose, and allowed her teacher, the Demon Breaker Halie, to cast him away - acting on her fear of Kiryu, a fear that had been placed within her by the true puppetmaster of the apocalypse.
Aelaes, the Daughter of Heaven and Kir’s mother.
After Halie’s banishment of Kiryo, Amarena was finally able to grasp more of the big picture after interrogating her former teacher, who had not expected to live this long. The maven had burnt her power down to the dregs in order to send Kiryu far away. Helpless and adrift, she’d confessed everything. Amarena hated herself for having played a part in it, for piecing together Kiryu’s identity as Shin’Gir, God of Destruction. For failing in her promise not to allow Kir to be subsumed by him.
Just as she’d failed to become the Valrian leader that Halie had wanted her to become. Those ideals of justice had tempered her wrath and become a part of her, but the Order itself had rejected her as absolutely as it could without making it official.
She’d grown out of her quest for strength and into the question of what she wanted to use that strength for. Then, those who professed to be the beacon of valor and justice had pushed her away for having the gall to be a demon who helped to save them. In the back of her mind she’d known this ever since she’d been sent away, but working with Kir and the nation he’d assumed control over had helped to keep her mind off of it... until now.
Now, Amarena didn’t know what to do with herself.