The three survivors walked in step behind Gawayen as he revealed himself to the assembled troops before him. He was in full regalia, armour of bone, a cloak of skin and a heavy crude obsidian blade strapped to his back. He was a demon, a figure that had battled his way out of hell and wore the trophies of survival proudly. Behind him the survivors were cloaked in black, obscuring them from prying eyes and shielding them from the regiments before them. He had spread word an hour beforehand that his successor had been chosen and would be revealed soon, but did not specify a time. Like many other things he did, It was a test. He needed to know how quickly the army could mobilise if necessary and this was a perfect chance to check.
As he looked out at the lines of people standing to attention before him he smiled wickedly. Thousands of different ideas, plots and machinations swirled within his mind. “My countrymen, after months of training, trials and competition, I will now announce my successor. It was hard-fought, with some of our best and brightest attempting to take up my mantle. Many have fallen in the process, and every single one of the competitors shed more blood than they probably will have to in the rest of their life, but finally we have an answer.” his hand moved as he ushered Ayna forwards, “Behold your new Grand Morgana, Ayna of the black cloth!”
Ayna took down her hood and revealed a proud face, her blonde hair tied back in a simple ponytail. She stood head and shoulders above everyone within the army, and they knew. There would be rumours, how she had slept her way to power, how she was undeserving, how one of the other potentials was more fitting for a role. But the fact of the matter was that they had failed where she had not. They were not up to Gawayen’s standard and now she outranked them.
There was a murmur as her face was revealed before someone shouted in the crowd “For Avalon! For Lancelot and Morgana!” Another picked up the chant, then another, and soon enough the entire crowd was chanting for their new leader. All the while, Gawayen simply smiled.
Gawayen never left anything to chance, and so tried to prepare for every eventuality that he could think of. Even with something as pivotal as prophecy he would prepare. He did not wholly believe in the Doom of the Avalonians, but he was a pragmatist. If it was coming then he would prepare a way out, and that was what the well of Yoth was. A way out. A simple wish to become immune to the curse that had plagued Kimbramancers, and by extension Doom of Avalon, would allow him to transcend anyone from his clan. Yveth was the path for survival of Avalon if everything went wrong, but he needed a path for himself. He was going to survive, through any means necessary, and his daughter was his own flesh and blood.
Elated, Ayna turned and smiled at Gawayen, but could not help seeing the thoughtful smirk he wore. Quietly she walked back behind him, but stood proud on his right. Her eyes never left the man who had become her mentor as she devoured every movement he made, how every change in tone affected the crowd and how something as simple as orders to traverse the Tower, and return to the well could be a soul stirring performance that invigorated the spirits of the soldiers watching him. In Ayna’s eyes, Gawayen was the perfect leader for Avalon. He embodied everything that Avalonians wished to be.
Finally Gawayen left the stage, and Ayna followed in step behind him. They made their way back to the simple stone building that had housed them during the trials that had given Ayna her new rank. Two hooded figures could be seen carrying folded skin out of the building which made Gawayen smile. He had not expected for Ayna to go that far, but it seemed that she did have a backbone after all. “I can work with that...” he muttered as he glanced at her.
“What was that sir?”
“Nothing worth you worrying about. But I should say that now you are in a position of power there are certain things you should be briefed on. You know of our Doom, correct?”
They pushed open the door to the building, stepping around the few blood trails left by the two cloaked figures. Quickly they made their way down the main hall and into a large meeting room.
“What Avalonian doesn’t? The Doom of Avalon is a’thrumming, Hammer’s children are war-drumming. Blood and bone, and broken homes. Naught will stop revenger’s coming. Yveth used to sing that like a nursery rhyme when we were children,” she shuddered. “She’d dance around me with her little knife made of my rib-bone and torment me, as if my role in life was to be wheat cut down by the revenger."
“She certainly was a gifted child. Either way, the augers predict that our Doom quickened the more powerful we became. My birth was the culmination of that, in fact my death is supposed to usher in the cycle of Avalon’s doom. And that is why I created Yveth."
“I don’t follow...” Ayna frowned.
“Yveth has no mother. She is wholly made of me, and was created as a stand-in so that I may live and battle the Doom of Avalon at my full strength. It took thousands of hours for the augers to divine the moment she should be given potential in order to become my surrogate, but the plans worked better than I had hoped. The child of my flesh, blood and will took form and the augers began divining."
“The pride in your voice suggests it worked,” Ayna frowned. She could not work out the ramifications of Yveth being the bearer of Avalon's doom, but instinctively she felt that it could only be a negative.
“Beyond our wildest dreams. Yveth’s ability to use stolen potential has always been second to none, to the point where we think that in theory she could live off stolen potential until the very Tower rots. At the price of her strength stagnating of course."
“Surely the inverse is also true, that she could sacrifice her life and stored potential for strength."
“Oh absolutely,” Gawayen smiled. It was a soft smile, but one that managed to send shivers down her spine. “That's where you come in. You are going to become the corpsemother of our kingdom, you are going to find the best and brightest Avalonians and train them until they become diamonds or collapse into dust. Then you will take the corpses of the fallen and so I may absorb their potential and build up power. I need enough power to spit in Babel's eye if all else fails."
“Do you think it will?” Ayna said, her voice catching in her throat at the possibility.
“Well there's no harm in preparing is there?”
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