A slimy thing flopped to the floor, encased in a membrane. The head tried to push its way clear.

Anat leaned forward in her chair and vomited. It was all Rina could do not to as Ro made hacking sounds.

More small black snakes—for that was what they were—fell to the floor, covered in an acrid-smelling film and flapped about, slapping against the ground. One of the high-magisters yelped and lifted her feet when one of them broke through the sac encasing it and snaked toward her.

"What is that?"

"Mubash!" Pilo lept to crouch on his chair as more snakes slithered their way about the receiving room. "They're baby mubash. Keep your feet away!"

The rest of the assembly scrambled on their chairs, cursing, while the guards searched for higher ground.

"Hold your places," came a curt order from Olav. The guards resumed their positions, but with flexed-kneed stances.

When Rina made to lift her feet, Mai pressed her hand. Don't move, he said to her down the line. This is not the time to show fear.

She dared a brief look, and his eyes held hers. She swallowed and gave him the barest nod. In response, he sent her a burst of warmth that made her remember the sudden cold. A gust of wind wound through the room, warm at first, but rapidly cooling.

"What the heck is happening?" shouted a guard.

Pilo gave the man a slicing glare and said, "The mubash is the symbol of the Taint."

"That's just a legend," said a grey-haired high magister. Crouched on a chair, clutching the arm, he no longer carried his usual air of authority.

Though they held their positions, the guards shifted and cursed while Olav descended the stairs of the dais.

The judge, Balasi, leaned over, face scrunched with disgust, and peered down at a serpent that writhed below him. "That can't be right. The Taint doesn't exist in magisters." The snake pierced the membrane with a pop! and Balasi's Adam's apple rolled up and down his throat.

Ro stopped gagging. She hunched on all fours, her crystal diadem on the floor, and a line of saliva drizzled to pool.

Ice claws raked down Rina's spine as a guard swiped at a beast with his sword. From the corner of her eye, she saw Olav stop before a snake. She'd wondered how he bore the thick boots in the heat of Nebia, but as his foot slammed down with a Thunk! she understood. One time. All that was needed for them to be worth the sweat. He faced her, a grim smile on his lips, and continued.

Thank the gods, she thought, even as her heart picked up a beat, as he swiped and sliced and stomped. The beat of his movements a reassuring rhythm.

Beside her, a smile flickered on Mai's mouth. Wait, was that pride in his eyes? She furrowed her brow. Olav was an elite guard—amongst the highest-ranking soldiers in Eurora. No small feat for a man of his age, despite who his mother was. He'd been raised in a backwater city in an outer province, and now he led Mai's regiment.

As if reading her mind, Mai turned his approving face on her. I'm proud of all my children, my dear.

Rina flushed. Of course, he was. She had heard it a thousand times, in the prayers of the forsaking, in her prayers. Mai the Magnificent, father of their nation. How could she forget this as she sat beside him?

Mai leaned to her and whispered in her ear, his breath warm and smelling of mint. "Don't be like that." More warmth—sent directly to the cold pit in her sternum. "Olav's mother is a dear friend of mine. You were not to know I have followed his career with interest."

"Media?" Rina asked, then clamped her mouth shut. Of course, he referred to Media.

"Media," he said in affirmation. "My right hand in the north." He brought her hand to his lips, and she trembled. "The one who found you, and come what may, brought you to me."

Death and threats had brought her here. She remembered the gallows and the swing of Isaac's body. Iskra would have a fatherless child now.

Across the room, Olav had finished, and now he stood staring at her, his face stricken as he stared at the two of them.

She recalled the stench of piss and blood and the crack of Olav's knee against her uncle's nose. All the warmth Mai had given her left. Here, in a sunlit room in the south of the continent, she was again in Amadore, shivering with the cold. Empty.

The blood of the dead snakes streaked the floor. Magister Ro had slumped to the marble, froth at her bloody mouth, eyes glassy marbles. Bodies and blood. The only difference, this time it was not a Denese with their lifeforce draining from their body.

Energy drifted from Ro. The Carnelian Way left her dying body and sought a new home in the world. Rina's stomach hollowed and saliva pooled in her mouth.

Anat and Pilo had climbed down from their chairs and rolled Ro on to her back.

"Careful there," warned Pilo as Anat put her ear to Ro's mouth, mindful of what had slipped from it minutes before. Pilo, eyes never leaving Ro's ravaged mouth, pressed two fingers to the inside of her wrist.

Gods, Rina thought. She was empty. And so hungry.

Pilo nodded to Anat, and she squeezed Ro's nose, tilted her head back, and began giving her the breath of life. How could Anat put her life at risk for such a woman? When Anat paused, Pilo began to pump Ro's chest.

The energy continued to slip away. It curled across the floor like smoke needing to go somewhere.

Rina licked her lips. Why not go to her?

Vaguely, Rina became aware of Mai, releasing her hand and moving to Ro. He lowered to the ground, unmindful of the blood and spit and slime, and put a palm to either side of Ro's face.

"Your Magnificence, it's too dangerous!"

Mai held Pilo's gaze a moment. Though unable to see Mai's expression with his back to her, Rina sensed the devil of a smile before yellow-green power formed in the space between the palms of Mai's hands and Ro's temples.

Ro's body began to glow with it as he sent trails of his life force into her, and Rina realised he tried to bring Ro back from the brink. Overlaying this, she saw the hazy images of Ro's atrocities. Why was he doing this? Murderer, traitor, that was what Ro was, and she didn't deserve to survive this final proof of her evil.

The energy leaking from Ro slowed.

Monster. Rabid dog. Tainted so deep, the seed had sprouted into mubash.

Rina still remembered the feeling of Ro ripping into her soul and clawing away her power, heedless of the pain or risk. Ro didn't care about the Denese. Or about unification. All she wanted was power, and she would stab Mai in the back to take it.

Why couldn't Mai see this?

Ro's foot began to twitch. A lump in her throat moved up and down.

Pilo saw it. "Careful, Your Magnificence. If you were bitten, we don't know if..." Pilo's words trailed off as Mai ignored him.

The fool. Pressure built in Rina's chest and her feet itched to move, to do something. She needed to do something because if there was more mubash in Ro, they could kill Mai. There was no cure for a mubash bite, and long-lived or not, Mai was a man.

Unfocusing her eyes, she opened her vision to that other spectrum of light. The trees and flowers glowed, and even the carved stone pillars shimmered. Mai was the sun, the magisters about him sun flares.

Only a small flicker remained of Ro's life, separated from the élan vital that had leaked away, like a lone ember in a bed of dirt, adrift from the rest of the blaze.

While Anat and Pilo continued their work, Mai sent thin lines of the Carnelian Way to meet it. He did it cautiously. Like one would slowly add pieces of kindling to hot coal so as not to smother it. In the right conditions, an ember could start a forest fire. Sure enough, a flame began, growing with each line of power Mai added to it.

The ache inside Rina grew, eating away at her, and all the while, Ro's lifeforce kindled. Mai was going to save her.

Ro groaned. Anat and Pilo pulled back, staring at Mai in awe.

No. She couldn't stand it—she wouldn't let him do this. Ro would betray him again. And Rina was hungry. So very hungry.

Mai turned to her. His lip twitched, and he gave the faintest shake of his head. Don't, he said into her mind. She needs to go to trial.

Their god-emperor, merciful to the last. To his detriment. No. She wouldn't allow it.

Ignoring his orders, Rina let the hunger take control. She opened her mouth and drank.

She began with the Carnelian Way that bled from Ro, lapping it up like snowmelt before the marble absorbed it, then she moved inwards, drinking from Ro herself.

Ro bucked.

Stop, Rina, Mai growled down the line. But she couldn't. She sucked the air from the blaze Mai had ignited, tasted his energy too, and then Ro stilled. Just that flicker remained—that tiny ember.

Rina.

Moisture grew in her mouth, and her body lightened as she moaned.

Mai held her now. The part of her anchored to the physical world felt the hiss of his breath as he said, "Stop this." It heard the gasps of the representatives and the guards. She couldn't stop. That ember of life called to her. Her body trembled with the need to consume it, and letting go of the last scrap of her control, she let her essence guzzle it down.

For one shining moment, she understood what it was to be immortal.

Wide-eyes stared up at her, and it took Rina a moment to realise she hovered above the ground. That was fear in Olav: the ashen face and open mouth. She followed his gaze to the centre of the room to where a pile of ash and bones peaked beneath the remains of Ro's robe.

All sensation drained from her body, pouring from her legs, and her stomach folded in upon itself, pushing bile up her throat. She fought to keep it down.

Rina. A cold cheek pressed against her own. Rina, my dear. I'm here. I'm here.

From across the room, Olav's black eyes met hers, and then he looked away. A hacking came from a guard bent over, arm propped against one of the pillars.

Rina, Mai's voice urged her. He cradled her in his arms.

I'm a monster.

Shh, no. Icy fingers stroked her face. No, no, my dear. You're not. I know what you did and why.

She began to shake her head.

You did it to protect me.

She froze. She had, to begin with, but then it had become something else. A need that overwhelmed her. Below, the faces continued to stare at her like she was some demon. An Arkis-spawned Denese. She supposed she was. Deep in her bones, in her marrow, she knew she could raze this place to the ground if she chose to.

She examined her hand, the air rippling about it. So this was what the mages of Denea had wrested to keep control of, and, in the end, turned upon themselves.

You're not like them, Mai said down the line. He sent compassion with the words. Elia and Arkis sought power. You, you did this to protect me—you came here to protect your family and your people.

She paused, breath hitching. He knew about Pietro. She snorted to herself—of course, he knew about Pietro. Yet no-one had put it like that. She had been stubborn and willful, a fanatic, a chosen, but never a woman making a sacrifice for the people she loved. She turned in his arms and saw the understanding. Hero, saviour, emperor. Never a man who'd sacrificed to save the last remnants of his people.

Her shoulders curled in. They'll never understand.

Tucking a strand of hair behind her ear, he said, They will, my dear, and pulled her back to the earth.

Hand-in-hand, they returned to their seats. Rina felt she would float away, the power still blazing through her veins. She faced her judges—could feel the vibration of their hearts beating through their bones, taste their sweat and blood—as they stood there in their umber, red and maroon robes, crystal diadems resting on their brows. How had she feared them? They were sacks of flesh and marrow, held together by threads of the Carnelian Way. Threads she could weave or unravel at her whim. They should fear her.

They did.

"Magister Ro sought to overthrow me—the mubash within her were confirmation of this. Rina"—he squeezed her hand—"was unwilling to risk letting her live to a trial that would have ended in her execution."

High-magister Balasi shut his eyes.

"I had thought the heretics were constrained to the Denese in the outer regions. I was wrong. Had I allowed Magister Ro to live, she may have found a way to communicate with them. Rina was right." His blue stare turned to Nab. "Guards," Mai barked. "Take Magister Nab to the tower. Magister Ro may have escaped her trial, but he has not. We will find out the truth."

Olav pause a moment. Then with a flick of his head, he indicated to a pair of his men to take Nab, who, after a last look at the dust that had been Ro, went without complaint.

After they had gone, Mai said, "I have no intention of fighting a civil war on two fronts. This woman"—Mai lifted their clasped hands—"Arkis and Elia's descendant has consented to become my bride. Our union will be the first step in healing the divide between Eurora and Nebia, and reinvigorating the Carnelian Way."

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A/N: Thank you again for reading. The mubash is something I am going to feed in more in the earlier chapters,  so I hope it didn't come too early here—and wasn't too confusing. I got the idea from Bashmu, who was a Mesopotamian snake god (Old Denea/ the Desolation is inspired by Mesopotamia, as is the architecture in Hypat and Nebia). Though the snake is, of course, also a symbol of sin, too. 

I'd love to hear what you think of what Rina did. Is her power twisting her?

One more part to this chapter (hopefully I will get it up in the next few days) and then a bit. of...🔥