The council of Aeternitus was usually a droll affair.
Yes, it was where those in leadership shifted and decided things for all the land, but it was also a place where old men and women argued over the tiniest of details. The subject was usually trade deals and small wars between minor cities.
Endlessly. Tediously.
For if something could lean ever so slightly to their side, they could amass more and more power. This was Aeternitus' idea of balance, as incredulous as it was. The balance was in the hope that no individual city would become too powerful without the other lords banding against them.
Which, in truth, is no great balance at all. Although a system that relies on people's greed is perhaps better than a system that relies on people's better nature.
Besides the weight of what details could affect, there was also the fact that among immortal rulers there were bound to be a few that could talk endlessly. So the council of Aeternitus wasn't usually a quick affair at all.
It would meet at least every half a decade, usually once every other year, and was in session anywhere from a week to a month. Any lord of the city-states could call for one, but only the major city-states had any real obligation to attend.
Yet, for the first time in Aeternitus' history, the council was called by a lord without a city: the one Lord Maledic.
It was also the first time in a century that it wasn't held in the neutral city of Fluentem.
The original summit carved atop a cliff had to be revisited since Fluentem was too mired in the current events and soldiers for it to be a peaceful place of discussion and agreement.
The summit was a simple but grandiose structure. It was circles upon rising circles of seats, with a flat, round stage at its bottom and center. A statue to Bonum stood in there, twice as tall as any man. Malum had his many different faces wrung around the outermost seats, looking away from it all.
However, it had been a century. The once sharp details in the intricate carvings were smooth. The paint that had once covered the statues was long gone. Bonum was missing a hand. The water stains upon the statues made them look like they were weeping.
Despite this state of decay in the setting, every lord who could attend was there.
From the countless little lords from places like Triviis to the lords of the major city-states like Fluentem, Lapis, and even Nix.
Especially Nix.
One of the main actors on the stage right now, it seemed all actions were in reaction to Nix. Even this.
The Lord of Bonumbas, insomuch as Bonumbas had a lord, was absent. This was not of much note to most of the attendees. He was not often in attendance.
Lord Maledic arrived late. He had no choice.
The old summit was far to the north of Fluentem, which was a ways to travel from the Hidden Manor, especially for an old man bound in a wheelchair. Even more difficult, the last stretch to it was up a loosely disguised cliff that had a perilous path. Aes had to carry him the last stretch of the way, but Maledic was long since used to things like that.
Although he did remember when he walked up it with his missing feet.
Yet all of that, the journey, had been a side note compared to the dreams Lord Maledic kept having.
It was one dream. The dream was recurring, but not exactly identical. Every night in them, old man Maledic was young again. With legs, smooth skin, and without any aches or pains.
He held onto a wrinkled old hand attached to an old man who lay upon his deathbed.
In this night's version of the dream he murmured something over and over again.
"I swear I will not give Aeternitus only a future of war. I promise you…"
In the dream, Maledic had been certain he was talking to his father.
But his father hadn't died in such a way, on a clean bed with the sunlight resting on his face. He had clutched his father's hands on the battlefield. The most loyal arm of a ragtag army that counted a couple hundred men was the only thing that allowed even that moment.
There had been no spoken promises. His father had coughed, spilling red from his mouth, and died. Maledic had closed his father's eyes that final time for him.
"I promise you Aeternitus won't have a future only of war and death."
Still, Lord Maledic spoke this in the dream. All the other dreams before it, it felt like he had said something different, but he couldn't remember clearly.
Waking from them was its own experience. It was as if he reclothed himself in the layers of years, the aches and the pains. All the consequences of the actions of his life.
He had worked tirelessly to build up Lapiz, and after building the city up to prosperity, he had worked to see the Council of Aeternitus. To ensure the lords saw eye to eye before wars were called pointlessly, whenever possible.
After all that, after he had seen his duties through all of those decades of turmoil and after another tedious century, having been a lord longer than anyone else in Aeternitus' history, he stepped down as lord.
Now, the history of Aeternitus was much longer than it had been then.
Lapis was moving further and further towards making wealth from its mines and further and further away from the Lapis he had guided for so long. For the people who had grown up in the modern Lapis to lead the future of Lapis had seemed only right.
Yet, even that decision stung him now, as he had finally seen again the streets of Lapis. Streets of gaudy grandeur that mocked his faded memories and that mocked the poor that weren't even allowed a place to sit. A place he didn't know at all.
"I promise to give Aeternitus a future of peace."
Lord Maledic had never sworn these words.
Perhaps war would be a solution, he thought in irritation.
He could retake the city of Lapis, straighten out his crooked bloodline by cleansing it…
After what he had seen of the city, that solution was almost deserved, and the sentiment would remain after the rage left.
But now every solution he knew seemed like the wrong one. War led to bloodshed, and bloodshed always had its price.
Peace seemingly had a different price.
It had been a very long time since Maledic had led anyone to war directly.
It is not for me to send the people into a meaningless war for my wasted pride.
Such thoughts are what Maledic pondered, as he was carried up the mountain by Aes.
Lord Caducus Nix had arrived first.
He sat at the feet of the statue of Bonum, next to where those speaking stood.
There wasn't a seat carved there, but Lord Caducus used Bonum's foot.
Many of the lords who entered paused when they saw him sitting.
The old, legless, weary, and withered Maledic just sighed when he saw Lord Caducus sitting there.
Lord Caducus was always Caducus to Maledic. He had known the former Lord Nix.
That man had been a different sort of mess and terror. Lord Maledic hadn't dared to celebrate the former Lord Nix's downfall, but he wondered if it had been for the best. In light of recent events, Maledic reconsidered that as too high of an expectation.
As much as Maledic knew of Caducus, he knew him in person hardly at all. In fact, this time with Lord Maledic creaking in on a wooden wheelchair and seeing Caducus Nix lounging at the foot of Bonum might have been his first time sight of him.
A defined jaw and nose with long pale blond hair and snowy skin were Caducus' basic features. That one-eyed stare was the only mar on his beauty.
And that closed eye was his most distinguishing feature.
The ancient Maledic pushed his wheels into the center of the summit.
"Are you going to move me, Lord Maledic?" Caducus Nix said.
Maledic looked down at him as he gave a slow blink.
"No," he said. "I am going to talk, and this is where people talk in the summit."
"Oh?" Lord Caducus said, "I thought all lords were supposed to be equal speakers at the summit."
He took his knuckles to the statue of Bonum for emphasis. An unspoken gesture that meant "for good." Despite how irreligious it was.
Maledic barely heard a quiet gasp from a few lords.
Nothing happened, of course. Maledic had never seen Bonum work so quickly.
"For the sake of order," Lord Maledic said, "the main speaker stands at the center."
"Doesn't this inherent focus skew the perception of the proceedings?" Caducus said.
"Perhaps, but anyone can choose to sit wherever they like," Maledic said. "As you have done, despite the comfortable and available seats."
"We can't all bring our seat," Caducus said.
Maledic wheeled his chair to turn away from Caducus and faced the crowd of lords. It was humiliating that this small act was accentuated into the comedic by the creaky chair. But again, it was a humiliation Maledic was more than used to.
"I do not need to sit at the feet of a goddess to give my authority credence," Lord Maledic said.
His focus looked up at the gathering of the lords. There were so many more faces than what Maledic had expected. Nearly double a hundred looked back down at him.
In Lord Maledic's time, the eighty minor cities had been a major accomplishment.
And hardly a single one of them was a face he recognized. In Lord Maledic's time, the Lords had not been immortal, but now ascension was a requirement. Immortality from age still meant mortality by violence.
"Lords of Aeternitus," Lord Maledic said, "I will be brief. I have called this summit to bring the Lord of Nix to answer for bringing war between the major city-states and not consulting this council. How will you make him answer?"
Lord Maledic was true to his word. He kept his words short. So short that the audience of Lords didn't know quite what to do.
There wasn't a long pause before the silence was broken.
"On whose authority?" Lord Caducus said. "Yours? Didn't you put down your title as the Lord of Lapis? Why didn't he call for us instead of you?"
Caducus now stood. Yet he still seemed completely at ease. Like he had wandered in here and admired the scenery.
"I act with the authority of the Law that all the lords of Aeternitus have agreed upon," Maledic said. "If you find my authority beneath you, then I will leave. But what you have done will not be ignored, Lord Caducus. Not this time."
Lord Caducus looked down at Maledic with visible disdain.
The lords' confusion worsened.
"Did he speak of that…?"
"The years that turned back—did we all experience it?"
But these few comments were quickly silent. Most lords did better for themselves by saying nothing of such a great matter.
He had made them deeply uncomfortable by reminding them of such a mysterious open secret.
Lord Maledic had never intended to distract them so easily.
"None of us truly knows what the future holds, or the past, or why we have seen it," Lord Caducus said. "And this mystery is of great concern. If you have no authority, Maledic, then I will end this summit by my authority."
"Perhaps that would be for the best."
"Maybe we should discuss another matter…"
The lords seemed halfway satisfied with Lord Caducus' decision. Not all murmurs seemed in agreement, but no one was being very loud about their disagreement.
Maledic felt confused himself.
Where is their pride? He thought. Lord Nix has spat upon the foundations of centuries of prosperity, and they act like me calling them here is a disturbance?
They want to discuss why we are here? Did Bonumbas not burn in the past they remember? Did thousands not die in the wars Caducus started?
He didn't need them to speak openly on such matters. They were delicate and difficult, and not all here were lords and knew. Not all here were allies and friends.
But to act as if these acts never happened! What are their numbers worth if they don't even understand…
He worried less about how he appeared before them and more about how he could move them to do anything at all, if the past couldn't.
"Can we really say he isn't a Lord?" One of the seated lords said. "The Lord Maledic?"
"Where was he when my city-state suffered war?" Came a cynical reply. "If he's a lord, he's a lord of everyone, and he has done nothing."
Lord Maledic sought the first one who had spoken, as other small conversations broke out.
"Forget his actions for a moment," the first speaker continued. "Who was he supposed to choose, besides? His 'Hidden Manor' is a small town by itself. Is it numbers that decide a city-state, or the fact that the people answer to no law but Lord Maledic's? And as Lord Nix said, he could have gotten Lord Lapis to call us all out here anyway. So why not hear him out now? It would save us the extra trip out here."
As soon as Maledic spotted him, Maledic recognized him. The long waves of brown hair and olive skin said it all. It was Lord Ariolus.
Ah, Maledic thought, of course he would talk out against his enemy.
From Maledic's memories, Ariolus had played little part in the upcoming war. This was largely due to the young lord's age. Separate from any war, the former lord had died in a hunt that had been put to lyrics. The song was quickly becoming a modern classic, but none of that had helped the young man who was now in an unexpected seat of leadership.
It was fortunate the former lord had rushed Lord Ariolus' ascension. Otherwise, the succession of power would have been in the same position Fluentem's had been in. And the people of Ariolus were not the same as Fluentem. Civil war would have been a certainty.
Though… most who sit here are unexpected lords… Maledic thought. Or planned murderers.
Most were immortals who had succeeded the immortal.
He eyed Caducus standing beside him.
"If my authority to speak is no longer in question?" Lord Maledic asked.
His voice cut through the continued murmurs.
"Lords of Aeternitus, why do you not wish to question the Lord of Nix?" Lord Maledic began. "Do you fear his armies will turn on you next? Will he not be more quick to use his armies on you next if you don't act now?"
"Come off it!" Lord Lapis said. "Lord Maledic, grandfather, why must you treat this like an inquisition? Lord Nix was obviously trying to right order in the city-state of Fluentem!"
Lord Lapis was a reedy little man. Over the past decades Lord Maledic had known him, Maledic had found his vigor for protecting his city's prosperity an asset. He had found his hesitation towards conflict charming.
Now that Lord Lapis stood against him, Maledic saw him as a spineless coward.
"Grandfather?" Lord Maledic said. "I never knew a grandson that would turn over his rights and responsibilities as a lord just to play the hunting dog for Lord Caducus! Then again, did I ever know you?"
Lord Lapis sat momentarily dumb in his seat. This wasn't the first time his Maledic had been harsh with him, but it was the first time with an audience.
Lord Lapis had never expected Lord Maledic to turn away from his family so publicly. The rest of the lords were also shocked.
Bloodline was everything. Didn't this crazy old legend understand that?
Here was one of the grandfathers of the land, turning against his own lineage.
It bode ill.
"Is the old man finally going insane?" Lord Maledic said. "Why are we even listening to him? He decided to retire long ago. You don't get to pick up the responsibility of leadership after dropping it on a mere whim!"
"'Old man?'" Lord Lapis said, incredulous at the one he'd been defending only a moment ago.
"Look at him," Lord Maledic said. "He's a relic from the past. If he's not old, who is?"
Who could deny that?
"He is our history," Lord Ariolus said. "You should respect him because of that, any lord should. Without Lord Maledic, what even is Nix?"
Lord Caducus turned to the young man. Slow steps brought a handsome face that was twisted by the ugly expression.
"And what does Lord Maledic have to do with Nix?" Lord Caducus said. "Shall I lend my fathers' work over to him? My hard work? Because he brought prosperity to the land? Nix's prosperity belongs to Nix."
Lord Ariolus was dismayed to see Lord Caducus tower over him. He looked away but changed his mind and surged to his feet.
"Aeternitus' prosperity is Nix's prosperity!" Lord Ariolus said. "Aeternitus' prosperity is also Ariolus' prosperity! The less lives are lost in pointless wars, the more hands are ready for work. A city is nothing without its people. Peace has helped all the city-states grow strong."
The entire summit watched this forced standoff between Nix and Ariolus.
And just like that, the little old Lord Maledic was momentarily forgotten.
Maledic shook his head again.