The lift ride back to the surface felt like an eternity of silence. By the time Asteria stepped out of the palace gates and into the waiting carriage, the artificial suns of the upper tier were beginning to dim. Her head was pounding, the echo of the bell and what she saw were bouncing in her thoughts.
When she arrived at the Spire, Valerius was exactly where she expected him to be; standing by the floor-to-ceiling windows of his study, staring out at the kingdom he planned to dismantle.
"You look like you've seen a ghost, Asteria," He said without turning around. "Or perhaps a god?"
"I saw a graveyard, Valerius." Asteria replied, slumping into a chair, the greet silk of her dress rustling in the otherwise quiet room. "She took me to see that disgusting Bell, then down to the 'Splendor', whatever that was supposed to be."
Valerius turned sharply, his eyebrows shooting up. "The Vault of Splendor? On your first day?" He poured a glass of amber liquid and set it on the table near her, his eyes narrowing. "I expected the Bell. She loves to show off the heart of her world. But the Vault... Aris doesn't let anyone in there without a fight. Not even for her."
"He didn't have much of a choice," Asteria muttered, taking a sip of the drink. It burned, but it helped clear the fog in her brain. "She threatened to take his title." She paused for a moment, finding the words to explain what happened next.
"The Pavilion, does it ring any bells?" She finally began, "...no pun intended, of course."
The colour drained from Valerius's face. He pulled a chair across from her and sat down, his usual composure fractured. "Did she show you what was there?"
'Hah does he really not know?'
"She did, what of it?" Asteria started, curiously.
"I know there are statues down there and Halesia values them as much as she does her own life, she wouldn't show anyone other than Aris. "
'Clueless... For a man who is supposed to know the ins and out of this kingdom he sure doesn't know much.'
"Statues? Don't make me laugh." Asteria let out a dry, harsh laugh. "They aren't statues! They're people, Valerius – just like you or me. Frozen in glass with smiles on their faces like they're having the best day of their lives – touching them like they were her pets."
She leaned forward, her voice dropping to a low, intense hiss. "She's insane, much more than I thought you were! 'Doing what any ruler would do', seriously?" She huffed, out of breath just thinking about it. "She boldly asked if I'd pick up a weapon and try to overthrow her, and when I said no, she asked if I'd reach for a secret instead."
Valerius was silent for a long moment, his fingers tapping a pattern on the arm of his chair. "The Pavilion is... different from what I was told. Plans have to be changed, I suppose – it's already begun, hasn't it?"
He looked at her, his gaze searching. "What did you tell her? When she asked about the secret?"
"I told her I'd reach for it," Asteria said, her jaw setting. "I don't think she likes the answer as much as she liked how I said it."
"On the contrary," He whispered."She probably loved it. You challenged her. She's interesting like that."
He stood up and began to pace, his mind clearly whirring through a thousand new calculations. "If she's taking you to the Vault already, our timeline has moved up. She's accelerating your 'education' because she wants to see when you'll beg for the peace she parades about."
"I'm not that fragile." Asteria snapped in response.
"I know you aren't," Valerius said, stopping to look at her. "But Aris is the key now. There's a reason there's something missing from every pedestal in the vault."
Asteria remembered the empty dais. "She didn't mention it. She was too busy trying to convince me that being a glass doll was a career path."
"The pedestals usually hold fragments of the Sovereign's Spark," Valerius said, his voice grim. "The source of her link to that disgusting noise. If it's gone, she's either carrying it, or she's moved it to somewhere even more secure."
He reached into his coat and pulled out a small, blackened coin, tossing it to her. "You did well today. Sleep. Tomorrow, she'll likely take you to the High Cathedral. If the Spark isn't in the Vault, it's there."
Asteria caught the coin, her fingers tracing the rough edges.
"Valerius?"
"Yes?"
"If I end up in that Pavilion... don't leave me there."
Valerius paused at the door, his silhouette dark against the silver halls and began to walk to where she was stood.
Pressing a hand to her chin, he leaned down and whispered in her ear in that same – disgustingly sweet and seductive tone: "I don't plan on letting the music last that long, Asteria."
"I'd hope so," And unknowingly, she stepped closer to him – he didn't miss the chance and decided to pull her into an embrace.
"Now, I have things to attend to, get some rest, Asteria" he said after a few moments, finally letting go of her.
The warmth of his breath lingered on her skin long after the door clicked shut, leaving Asteria alone with the silence of the study. She stood frozen for a moment. 'I hugged him? Oh my spell what am I doing... he's not even real...' The blackened coin was heavy in her palm.
The weight of his promise felt less like a comfort and more like a chain – another silk string wrapped around her neck in a city full of them.
'He is my master, so I suppose it's only fair.'
'I don't plan on letting the music last that long,' she repeated internally. 'But will he stop the music to save me, or just to silence her?'
She felt a pang of regret in her heart when she thought about it, though she chose not to dig into this feeling as she had better things to worry about.
Asteria moved to the window, looking out at the sprawling, crystalline ribs of Aethelgard.
From this height, the city looked like a geometric prayer, beautiful and bloodless. She could see the faint, pulsing glow from the lower districts where the Bell was strongest. Now that she had stood beside the Great Bell, she could hear the dissonance in every flicker of light. It wasn't a city; it was a vast web, and she was the only powerless fly that knew it was being eaten.
She thought of the Pavilion. The memory of those glass-trapped smiles made her stomach churn. They hadn't looked like victims; they looked like converts. That was the real horror. Halesia didn't just kill her enemies; she hollowed them out and filled them with a dream so sweet they forgot why they ever wanted to be awake.
'Sickening, truly. I do hope I don't have to fight one of those messengers this time...'
"You're just as paranoid as I am," Aris had said to the Queen.
She retreated to her own chambers, where Hestia had already laid out a nightgown of deep, bruised purple. The bed was too soft, the sheets too clean. Every luxury felt like a bribe.
[The Glass Gambit has been updated.]
'Oh? I'm going up in the world, I suppose?'
[The Glass Gambit
Your Trial has been updated!
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#4: "The Blessed has descended into the sepulcher of the sun and inhaled the frozen air of the Vault. You have gazed upon the Sovereign's madness and cowardice, along with her sickening collection – those hollow monuments that embody her madness and the 'peace' she has paved with their souls. You have seen the start of a masterpiece of dread: a gallery of failures that will eventually be carved into a mask – a mask with the agony and the dread of those subjects – a Mask of Glass. The hope she gave them has become the glass that entombs them; the dream she sold them is the nightmare you now inhabit."
...]
'Damnation.'