The King's Remorse

No Mourning, Only Revenge

"Care to elaborate?"

"Oh, you know. How'd he become the Dust Devil? How'd Bryant become the self-proclaimed King? Luke, was the voice targeting something you wish would change? Did it claim it could fix that thing?"

"Yeah." I nod. What's she getting at?

"Easy. The Amethyst Throne. It did the same thing with Bryant when it got him to become its vessel. I might've been in another dimension of Ragdon when that happened, but I don't have to be there to know. Anyone the Amethyst Throne comes into contact with and wants to control will hear its whispers. I haven't heard them myself, but I've been told they eat away at your mind, tell you what you want to hear, try to lure you in with sweet, sweet promises until you're too far gone to come back." I'm silent for a few moments as I process what Seneca said.

"So that was the Amethyst Throne?" Phoenix's voice is tight. His body is tensed as he awaits Seneca's reply.

"Yes, I believe so."

"Yup. It's dead. Today. Now. Good luck stopping me, Wolf. Not gonna work this time. I can't believe you managed to get me to come back here, to the White Tent Sea, last time. Not gonna work this time. Goodbye. See y'all when the Amethyst Throne's destroyed and Bryant's dead." Phoenix sneers, curling his lips and flashing his teeth. His tail flicks a few times before he shoves his way out into the streets of the White Tent Sea.

"Did I just hear Phoenix say he's going to destroy the Amethyst Throne? And hello, Luke. I hope you're doing well. Or as well as someone can be after hearing the whispers from the Amethyst Throne." Icarus frowns as he walks in before looking over his shoulder toward the spot where Phoenix had been. Seneca curses.

"Phoenix!" She sprints out of the tent. The 3 of us follow her.

"I'm not stopping! I've got a King to kill!" Phoenix snarls. He doesn't look back, instead continuing on at a leisurely pace, as if he has all the time in the world. His comment about Bryant turns heads. People's eyes widen in fear and more than a few cast terrified looks to each other. But if Phoenix notices, he doesn't show it. The snake weakly struggles against Scorpius's bonds but soon gives up.

"You cannot go. You will not succeed. Please, stop and listen for just, like, 1 minute!" Seneca races after the black cat.

"Seneca's telling the truth, Phoenix. You won't succeed." Icarus follows, trailed by me and Wolf.

"You doing alright?" Wolf glances over at me.

"Yeah."

"I told you already, I'm not stopping," Phoenix roars, whirling around, eyes flashing and flames crackling as his tail lashes back and forth. "When our parents and sister died, Ky and I swore on our lives we would avenge their deaths and destroy the so-called King we named KG14 since we couldn't speak what he named himself. We'd bring him down from the ground up and destroy everything he claimed to love before finishing with him. We said that if something ever happened to 1 of us that the 1st thing the other did was finish what we had started. No mourning, only revenge. And that's what I'm doing. You are not going to stop me this time, so quit trying. Or don't; I couldn't care less. Now, let me go so I can finally achieve our revenge."

"I'm all for revenge. But you're not gonna be able to destroy the Amethyst Throne, not easily at least. And if you somehow do, it'll destroy life on Ragdon like it is now. In my dimension, it slaughtered all of those who wielded magic, except for me and Icarus. And Icarus got his wing bound. I'm certain it will ruin the island if you manage to destroy it."

"If that happens, at least I will have gotten my revenge. Now, if you've got nothing left to say, I'll be leaving. I'm not stopping again."

"Phoenix, I get you're angry and you have every reason to be angry, but you cannot destroy the Amethyst Throne."