Chapter 24 The Conversation Before Violence
Voss stood across the flickering campfire, his hand resting on the hilt of his sword. The flames cast long, shifting shadows across his stern face as he studied Darius like a complex tactical problem on a war table.
"You speak of survival and fixing broken things," Voss said, his voice low and measured. "The empire describes you as a dangerous fanatic gathering divine weapons to overthrow the natural order. They paint you as a madman drunk on power. Yet here you sit. Calm. Tired. No grand declarations. No madness in your eyes. No posturing."
Darius poked at the fire with a stick, sending sparks drifting upward. "I spent seven years as a record keeper in exile. Grand speeches waste good ink and accomplish very little."
Veth paced behind Darius like a caged predator, clearly restless. "Enough talking. Let me fight him already. This conversation bores me to death."
"Quiet," Darius said without turning around. "He earned the right to ask his questions."
Mara sat silently beside Darius, her infected gold eyes fixed on Voss, observing every small movement and shift in expression.
Voss took one slow, deliberate step closer to the fire. "I watched you dismantle the sixty-year war. Not through conquest. Not through superior force. You simply exposed the corruption and let the entire system collapse under its own weight. Most men with even a fraction of your current power would have seized command of those armies and used them for their own ambition. You let the soldiers walk away. Why?"
Darius looked up at him. "Because those soldiers were never really mine to command. They were tired. Used. Broken by a machine the generals and kings built to feed on their lives. I only showed them where the gears were hidden."
Voss’s eyes narrowed sharply. "You protect civilians even when it slows you down. You minimize collateral damage at every opportunity. You treat the Calamities…beings who have ended kingdoms…like actual people. Not tools. Not monsters. Partners." He glanced briefly at Mara and Veth. "That should be impossible."
Veth let out a sharp laugh. "He is strange like that. I thought so too when I first met him."
Darius gave a small shrug. "They are people. Complicated, extremely dangerous people. But still people. The Pantheon created them as weapons and then abandoned them when they were no longer convenient. I am not going to repeat that mistake."
Voss was quiet for a long moment, processing. "I expected raw ambition. Fanaticism. Even outright madness. Instead I find exhaustion and careful, methodical planning. You are not trying to crown yourself emperor. You are not trying to burn the world down. So tell me honestly, Valeborn…what are you actually trying to do?"
Darius met his gaze steadily across the fire. "Survive long enough to finish what I started. Complete the seven marriages. Challenge the Pantheon. Break the corrupt system that cursed my bloodline and turned the Calamities into weapons. That is all."
Voss studied him carefully. "They sent me because the ordinary assassins and Husband Hunters keep failing. They are losing men and gaining nothing but fear. The empire is scared now. Truly scared for the first time in centuries."
Veth grinned from behind Darius. "Good. Fear is honest. I like when they are scared."
Mara spoke for the first time, her voice soft but clear. "You are different from the others who came before you. You actually think before you strike."
"I try to," Voss replied. "Which is exactly why I have not attacked yet. Because nothing about this situation makes any tactical sense. A supposedly weak prince should be long dead. A man bonded to Calamities should be their puppet or their monster. You are neither of those things."
Darius leaned forward slightly. "I am just a man who got tired of being the empire’s favorite sacrifice. They sent me to die as a political joke. I survived. Now they want me eliminated before I finish the full set. But I will finish it."
Voss drew his blade in one smooth, practiced motion. The steel gleamed dangerously in the firelight.
Veth tensed immediately, excitement flashing in her eyes. Mara rose to her feet in a fluid movement.
But Voss suddenly pivoted with lethal precision, spinning toward the darkness behind him. His sword flashed once. A hidden imperial agent dropped from the trees with a choked gurgle, throat opened cleanly. The man had been creeping forward with a poisoned dagger aimed directly at Darius’s back.
Voss flicked the blood from his blade with a sharp motion. "That one was ordered to kill you before I could properly evaluate the situation."
A heavy silence fell over the camp.
Voss slowly sheathed his sword. "I dislike interference."
Darius watched him carefully. "You just killed one of your own men."
"He was not acting in the empire’s true best interest," Voss said evenly. "He was following someone else’s orders. Someone who does not want me thinking too clearly about you."
Veth laughed again, clearly delighted by the turn of events. "I like this one. He has spine and brains."
Mara remained watchful. "What will you do now, General Voss?"
Voss looked at Darius for a long, considering moment. The fire crackled between them. The night air felt thick with tension.
"I still have my orders," Voss said finally. "But I am no longer certain they are the right ones. You have until morning to convince me, Valeborn. After that... we will see what happens."
Darius nodded slowly. "Morning then."
The night grew heavier around them. Voss sat down across the fire, still armed, still extremely dangerous. For the first time, a man sent to kill Darius had chosen to sit and listen instead of striking immediately.
The conversation before violence continued.