Garden of Embers: Beneath Devouring Eyes #2

Chapter 14, Final Part

For several seconds Valens could only stare. Just stare and wait, sure that any moment the sight before him would disappear. He'd blink and realize it was a dream or daydream. A mindholder illusion or optical illusion. Something. This was too much to hope for. Yet Sidus stood there grinning like a fool and Domi sobbed in sheer relief, so Valens knew he must not be seeing things.

A flicker of movement behind him drew his eye. Buccina, wearing her creepy pockmarked boy disguise, stepped into the room, smirking like a cat with cream. Valens's eyes narrowed. If she played some trick...

"It is no trick," the blue-eyed boy said, smiling as he--no, she--watched Domi sink on trembling knees next to the woven mat where his twin slept. "Well, not anymore."

"He's alive," Domi whispered again. He reached with a trembling hand to touch his brother, then hesitated. Valens understood why; between the fading bruises on Daedalus's face, sutured cuts, and splinted arm with blistered fingers peeking out of the bandages, there didn't seem to be a safe place to touch Daedalus without causing pain. The younger boy drew his hand back, then turned to look at Buccina's illusion, brown eyes pleading. "He's alive, right?"

The ebony-skinned illusion inclined his head. "Yes, he's alive." He--she--approached the mat, crouching down. Valens stared; wondering if Buccina truly squatted in her jewel-crusted paenula like that or if even the movement was an illusion. "He's just resting." She plucked something from Daedalus's temple and held it up; a teardrop-shaped promenia crystal throbbed golden and green between her dark fingers, and beneath her, the sleeping boy stirred with a faint gasp. "His heart and prometarium are severely damaged, but this is helping him recover. It makes him sleep most of the time. We can wake him, though."

Domi nodded, his eyes anguished. Hopeful. "P-please."

The Princeps Mindholder's illusion nodded, and she placed the crystal back on Daedalus's temple. The twin settled at once, breathing easier, then groaned as Buccina gave his shoulder a gentle shake. "Daedalus? Come now." He twitched and swatted weakly at her hand with his uninjured arm, lashes fluttering. "That's right. Open your eyes, dear boy."

Despite everything Buccina had just explained, it wasn't until the older twin's eyes cracked open and he squinted first at Buccina's illusion, then at the others, that Valens believed.

Eternal Radiance, the executed boy lived. Truly lived. Valens found himself staring, open-mouthed. He wasn't the only one.

Daedalus tensed, eyes darting around the room. His gaze landed on his twin, and tension bled from his frame. He relaxed against the mat with a shaky sigh. "D-Domi?" he croaked.

The younger twin smiled through his tears. "Yeah. You're alright. You..." He broke off, sobbing, but for the first time in days, Valens saw relief, not despair in his tears.

"The Eternal Radiance did not want me," the older boy whispered with a confused, broken smile. His voice cracked with sickness or disuse. "So it seems."

Domi gripped his twin's uninjured hand. "H-how? I saw you die."

"A long..." Daedalus swallowed and tried again, his voice stronger with the second attempt. "It is a long story," he slurred. "I still do not understand it all myself."

Buccina's illusion spread his hands. "Not so terribly long," the pockmarked boy said slyly, and Valens wondered if the illusion altered the mindholder's personality while she wore it. Or maybe Valens's perception of her personality? "Let's just say that before the execution, Princeps Oliva experienced a... sudden change of mind and heart."

"Princeps Buccina ensorcelled her," Sidus chuckled.

Buccina shrugged. "Oliva no longer cared personally if Daedalus died or not. She did her duty and used her prometus to stop his heart for three minutes, but saw no need to confirm later that his body remained dead."