"If you wished to overthrow me, would you reach for a weapon in this room?" The singular sentence froze her where she stood, echoing in her head.
Asteria didn't respond instantly.
Aris stiffened, his eyes firmly planted on the 'rat' in front of him, the cool smirk on the Queen he served.
She considered the relics again.
The obvious choices, the devastating ones, the dramatic ones. Then she looked at her.
"No," Asteria said, honestly. "To be honest, I'd like to live!" Asteria beamed, a smile as bright as she could make it.
"Oh?" Halesia seemed almost shocked at this turn of events.
"To even attempt to overthrow you would assume I'd be able to survive long enough to use it," Asteria sighed, "And I'm not stupid enough to think about fighting a Supreme!"
The sovereign in front of her did not smile, and that's precisely what unsettled her and Aris both.
"A supreme." Halesia repeated softly, "You're correct, what of it?"
Aris couldn't help himself and tried to de-escalate. "You speak of it lightly, does it hold no meaning for you, rat?"
'...Seriously?'
"I know," Asteria replied far too fast for the situation, though her smile didn't quite fade. "Which is precisely why I'm fond of breathing."
She shifted her weight, careful not to step closer to anything dangerous. The air in the vault was dry, thin – preserved, almost.
Halesia descended one shallow step at a time from the raised dais, "You assume," she began, mildly, "that I would destroy you for attempting it."
Asteria tilted her head, "Yes, though it begs the question if you're waiting for someone to try?"
"And if I was?"
"I'd ask for the reason, I suppose..." Her voice trailed off, surprised.
Halesia stopped at the base of the dais, the hem of her mist-white gown brushing the blackened stone. She didn't look like a woman who had just been asked a world altering question, she looked interested – excited.
"The reason?" Halesia echoed. "Perhaps I am simply curious to see if there is any steel left in this world that hasn't been polished into a mirror. Everything in this kingdom reflects me, Asteria. My light, my laws, my peace." She paused, taking a deeper breath. "It is… exhausting to look into a crowd and see only yourself."
Aris shifted, the chain of keys at his belt clinking like a warning. "Your Majesty, curiosity is a luxury that precedes a fall. You're trying to collapse what you've built..."
"And you, Aris, are a lock that fears the key," Halesia countered, her eyes never leaving Asteria's. She stepped closer, moving into Asteria's personal space until her scent was overwhelming. "You asked why I would wait for someone to try. Because, little one, a throne is not a seat – it is a cage. Even I would wonder what's beyond these bars I built for myself."
"You're bored," Asteria said, her voice regaining that jagged edge. "You've spent centuries building a paradise where nothing ever happens. You want conflict because it's the only thing you haven't bought yet."
Aris let out a sharp, drawn breath. "Watch your tongue, girl. I could kill you where you stand."
"Let her speak, Aris," the Queen commanded, a genuine, dark amusement lighting her features. "She is the only thing in this room that isn't covered in dust."
Halesia leaned in, her whisper intended only for Asteria's ears. "You said you wouldn't reach for a weapon in this room because you want to live. But tell me... if the weapon wasn't a sword, but a secret? If the thing that could topple me wasn't made of steel, but of truth? Would you reach for it then? Even if it meant the end of your precious freedom ?"
Asteria's heart hammered against her ribs. She thought of the [Mask of Glass] sitting in her soul sea, heavy with the screams of a million dead subjects. She thought of Valerius and his hidden maps.
"I'd reach for it," Asteria whispered back, her eyes flashing violet for a fraction of a second.
The Queen pulled back, her smile thin and razor-sharp. She looked satisfied – dangerously so.
"Honesty," Halesia mused. "How refreshing. Aris, show her the end of the hall. The Pavilion."
Aris's face paled. "The Pavilion? But Your Majesty-"
"I know what it is," Halesia cut him off, her voice turning to ice. "Open the path."
As they walked toward the back of the vault, the air began to change. The dry, preserved smell was replaced by a sharp, metallic tang. At the very end of the corridor of rooms, the walls opened up into a wide, circular pavilion that looked out over a seemingly bottomless pit.
In the center of the pavilion stood a series of statues. But as Asteria's eyes instinctively flared, she realized they weren't stone.
They were people. Covered in a layer of translucent, hardened glass, their faces frozen in expressions of absolute, ecstatic peace.
"These," Halesia said, her voice echoing in the hollow space, "are the ones who tried to 'reach' for the truth. They found their freedom, Asteria. Are they not beautiful?"
Asteria stared at the frozen faces, her blood turning to ice.
'This really is before my first nightmare... Damnation, fate – my foot!'
Asteria felt a cold sweat prickling at her hairline. The pavilion was a masterpiece of horror – a silent, frozen congregation of those who had dared to want more than a gilded dream.
Halesia's fingers trailed down the glass cheek of a young man, her touch almost maternal. "Isn't this what a ruler should do for her people, Asteria?" she asked, her smile stretching thin and ethereal. "I want everyone to live in such peace and harmony, just like these little ones. No more hunger, no more fear. Just... this."
Asteria scoffed, a jagged, ridged sound tearing from her throat before she could stifle it. Her teeth were clenched so hard her jaw ached. "I believe we have different thoughts on what living means, Your Majesty."
'Insane. She's actually, fundamentally insane,' Asteria's mind shrieked. 'I almost fell for it. I almost thought she was human back there. But a monster only stops being a monster when you stop trying to understand it. Damnation... when will I ever leave this stupid nightmare?'
Halesia's eyes were half-lidded, drifting toward the statues as if she were being seduced by the very stillness she had created. She looked ready to slip into her own eternal slumber right there on the pavilion floor. "Oh? How so?" she murmured, her voice a ghostly thread.
Asteria looked at the frozen faces, then at the Queen's distant expression. She realized with a jolt of terror that she was arguing with a hurricane. There was no winning here. There was only surviving.
"It doesn't matter," Asteria forced out, dropping her gaze to the floor. "Please forgive me, your royal and eternal Majesty... my upbringing makes me slow to understand such... sublime grace."
'I give up! Spell, take me out of here! I didn't sign up for the divine psych ward! Mama raised a quitter today!'
[...]
The near-slumbering Queen hummed, acknowledging the plea without truly hearing the sarcasm beneath it. The heavy, artificial calm of the vault seemed to swell, threatening to pull Asteria under.
"Enough," Aris snapped. The sound of his voice broke the trance like a stone shattering a mirror. He stepped between Asteria and the Queen, his keys clutched tightly in his white-knuckled hand. "We cannot stay here."
Halesia blinked, the glassy film over her eyes clearing as she returned to the present. The warmth of her presence snapped back into place – blinding, golden, and terrifyingly sharp. "Quite right, Aris. We wouldn't want our guest to join the collection just yet."
She turned toward the exit, her white silks billowing. "Valerius will be waiting for his report. Tell him you found the Splendor... enlightening, Asteria. Even if you haven't seen all of its wondrous secrets."
As they retraced their steps through the infinite, shifting corridors, Aris fell back, walking beside Asteria. He didn't look at her, but his voice was a low, urgent hiss that barely reached her ears.
"You have a dangerous mouth, girl," he muttered. "And an even more dangerous shadow. The Queen isn't the only one watching you."
Asteria glanced at him, her eyes catching the glint of a hidden rune on his slate-grey sleeve. "Is that a threat, Lord Aris? Or a tip?"
"It's a fact," Aris replied, his eyes fixed ahead. "The Vault doesn't just keep things in. It keeps things out. If you come back here without her, the glass won't just freeze your skin. It will eat your soul."
"Is that a challenge, then?" Asteria probed, a dangerous glint in her eyes.
"I'd hope not."