Aries Mars's Arc

Chapter 10 of 11

Aries climbed back up from the vault with the tablet under one arm and the scepter in his other hand. The stairwell sealed behind him with a grinding of stone. He crossed the empty hall and stopped before the crimson throne. The Aries sigil on its headrest still glowed faint red. He sat down. The seat was cold through his armor. He set the tablet across his knees and rested the scepter upright against the arm. The cosmic surface of the tablet swam with stars. Names crawled across it in slow lines. He tried to read them and felt his throat tighten. None of the names meant anything to him. They were strangers he had failed. His hands shook. He wanted a challenger to walk through the door. He wanted a fight. Anything but this list of people he could not picture. He closed his eyes and forced his breathing to slow. Anger pushed up in his chest. He let it rise and let it pass. He gripped the scepter tighter. The ram horns at its crown began to hum, low and steady. Warmth ran down the shaft into his palm. He kept breathing. The silence that once felt like drowning began to hold him instead of pull him under. Behind his eyes, an image sharpened. Cracked black stone, split with veins of molten light. Two words burned in the center: I AM. He did not say them aloud. He only watched them. The tablet grew warm on his knees. When he opened his eyes, the names had changed. They no longer scrolled past. They stood still. Beside each name, a face now formed in the dark surface. A child with singed hair. An old soldier missing an arm. A woman holding a broken helm. Small notes ran under each face. Where they lived. What they had asked of him. What they still needed. He read the first name three times until it stuck. Then the second. He did not try to hold all of them at once. He held one. Then the next. The scepter's hum settled into his ribs like a second pulse. He understood, for the first time since entering the vault, that leading did not mean knowing everyone at once. It meant starting with one. Aries stood. He lifted the tablet under his arm and the scepter in his hand. The throne stayed behind him, still glowing. He walked toward the tall doors of the hall. The first name on the tablet lived a half day's ride from the castle walls. He did not know yet what he would say when he arrived. He only knew he would go, and that the silence inside him no longer felt like nothing. It felt like a room he could finally enter.