Heavy is the Head that Wears the Solemn Crown

Fifty-Eight - The Haunting Voices

Techno

The streets are filled with happy smiling people. They all wear their finest clothing as they meet each other on the pavement. There are musicians playing folk songs and magicians conjuring up brilliant sights. Soldiers in their uniforms burst through the fray to grab their loved ones, holding them tighter than they've ever held their family or friends or lover. Their tearful reunions punctuates the air with whooping and laughter. The sun looks down fondly upon the world, and the wind laughs alongside the babbling children.

Techno stares down at the people from the large hallway leading to the king's room in the palace at L'Manberg's capital. He can hear the people in the city below him even through the glass, and he feels warmth as if he were sitting along all of those moving bodies. He vaguely reminisces about the last festival he went to. He doesn't seem to be fit for such grand affairs. At that festival, he made a huge mistake that almost killed someone he cared about. At this festival, he just didn't have the heart to join everyone. They were celebrating the end of the war. He was mourning everyone he lost because of it.

"I have a bad feeling about today," Alex whispers, pressing her spectral hand against the glass as she looks down at the people. Nothing reflects back in her eyes, a testament to her status as an apparition.

"You always have a bad feeling when wars end," Techno informs her coldly. He used to tolerate his divine companions, but he can hardly stand them anymore. Even though he never thought of them as his friends, he feels betrayed by them. He almost wishes he could blame them for the deaths of Moon and Tommy, but they were the ones to warn him about how harengons and seraphim were not supposed to exist. He should have headed their warnings when it was given. He didn't, and it's too late to make up for past mistakes. Techno will never be able to undo what he's done. But he will continue to be angry with himself and the gods until he moves on to his next life, one that might include Wilbur but won't include Tommy.

As Wilbur explained it, Tommy's soul was lost. It didn't enter the afterlife because Wilbur can feel when souls enter the afterlife. Techno, for some reason, can confirm that this death was different from every other death. Tommy's mortality was killed, but without the godmaker to cement his divinity, his soul will wander the known world, perhaps in the corners unknown to Techno and other gods. Shubble and Prismarina explained to Wilbur and Techno that it would take powerful soul magic to retrieve Tommy's soul from wherever it has gone, and neither of them know anyone capable of such feats, not even the headmaster of the academy they both attended. It was up to the universe itself to spare Tommy from his fate, and even then, the universe would probably make Tommy a constellation instead of returning his life to him.

"Why would Greater suddenly pull out of the war? Surely, the death of that seraph cannot be the only thing they wanted," Steve drawls, leaning his back against the glass instead of looking at the people.

Techno's hand closes into a fist. "That seraph was my brother."

Steve hums in acknowledgement, but he refuses to affirm Techno's words. Alex shrugs from where she stands, completely ignoring the argument at hand. "Greater would have pulled out eventually. Even though they have the Kikoku blade, it would be near impossible for them to get close enough to Wilbur to use it. Greater may be a powerful nation, but even they cannot stand against L'Manberg and the Antarctic Empire with Snowchester's help. Not to mention what Wilbur, Prismarina, Shubble, and that Enderian did to Origins. Greater is defenseless. They don't have anything."

"Greater negotiated the terms of the truce. They did not come out of this war with nothing," Techno glares half-heartedly at both of them. For whatever reason, a day after Tommy was killed, a delegation came from Greater. Wilbur was eager to assassinate the diplomats and genocide Greater, but he refrained when several of his advisors told him that the people were tired of war. Wilbur reluctantly sat down to make a treaty that would benefit everyone. Greater got to keep the Kikoku blade and they also got a very specific plot of land, a handful of towns near their border. In exchange, L'Manberg got the entire Lyssa mountain and an oath that their kingdoms would be trading partners for a long time. On top of all that, peace was established. The war was over. The people were celebrating, and Techno was still mourning.