The Black Lotus | Vol.1, The Eldenarian Artifacts ✓

9.

Sebastian might've been making the biggest mistake of his life.

And he had made plenty thus far, including the time he accidentally killed his subject during a torturing lesson; his father refused to speak to him for a week after that blunder. Sebastian still remembered their face; a poor, unfortunate ordinaire just a few years older than him the Shades caught snooping around their castle's shield charms. He never felt bad about what he did. Growing up, he had been taught ordinaires were parasites, leeches who threatened to destroy the world they shared with their wretched technology and reckless actions. It was a magician's divine right to restore a sense of purity to their world.

Thorian believed they needed to be conquered. Sebastian agreed. But after finding out the truth about his father, he wasn't sure anything the man told him could be trusted.

He glanced at his hand, the muscles in his face taut.

Every fiber of his being told him to take the Obscurio off, put it back where he found it, and scrub his mind clean of everything he experienced. Of everything he learned. Things would've been so much easier had he never put it on in the first place. He desperately wanted to forget. He wanted to go on the mission and impress his father and continue in his crummy life.

But he couldn't. Not after what he saw.

The Obscurio had taken him back to the day the magician community changed forever. He didn't remember much from that day. Most of it was spent locked away in his room crying into his pillows. His mother had disappeared mysteriously a few nights before. Thorian continued like nothing changed. Like he hadn't just lost the love of his life. As Sebastian drowned in sorrow and confusion, he hadn't even noticed his father left their palace.

He hadn't noticed the man went to commit the most heinous act in their people's history.

The vision showed him what truly happened in House Lumai's headquarters.

There was an argument, exactly how Thorian claimed, but the details were different from the way Sebastian had heard.

His father told him—told everyone—Pierre initiated the battle. According to his fable, the master lightweaver went rogue with his artifact, using it to mow down an entire battalion of Shades. Thorian, well-disguised by his robes and mask, was forced to intervene. He was forced to take his life. He was forced to take control of the Eldenarian Council.

That's what he said.

That's what he had everyone believe.

But that's not what Sebastian saw.

What he witnessed was a power-hungry man blinded by his quest to prevent the war the prophecy foretold. He would stop at nothing to achieve what he desired, even if that meant murdering a man he once called his friend. The look in his eyes... Sebastian shuddered at the image. He would never forget that look. He had never seen it before. He wished to never see it again.

He wished he saw none of it.

There was no use in wishing, though. Now he had a decision to make.

He was still sat on the cool grass of the outside courtyard in Castle Braexus. The Obscurio remained on his finger, its black gemstone dull and dark. The magic inside had gone, likely to reappear whenever it decided to screw with Sebastian's head again.

He couldn't fathom how his father wore the thing. Then again, that was probably why he kept it on a stand and not on his finger. The things it showed, the voices it brought with it... It was enough to drive the sanest man mad.

Sebastian scowled.

Thorian was mad. He knew that now.

He couldn't let him kill Makaela—or anyone else, for that matter. No more blood would be spilled over his asinine quest to stop the prophecy before it began. His quest for control and power would claim no more lives, not if Sebastian could help it.