A King's Legacy Ch. 46

Calium strained to hold against the renewed assault, rotating his two shields to keep the beast mostly in place again. The demon was flailing relentlessly as it tried to gain distance once more.

Aster took a step towards the pair, speaking in urgency. "STAHL! PLEASE! JU—" That ever-frustrating hush fell over his voice.

Death appeared just behind Stahl this time, the shadow already so very close as it fell on the beast. Aster screamed silently, unable to bring his arms up in time. It all seemed to slow for Aster as that stroke of demise descended on his wolf.

'I can't move fast enough. Stahl will be....' The thought was far too finite and crushing, but perhaps that's why Aster rejected it so profusely. The ringing that accompanied his next shield upon impact was far from the harsh screech of metal from before.

A pure and resonant chime accompanied the pulse of sparkling, golden warmth when the young king's shield was called to protect the one its master so desperately needed to. For the second time, Aster found himself brandishing his power so weightlessly without needing to move a muscle. He could only stare in surprise.

Calium was smiling broadly at the sight. The fallen king spoke proudly. "That's it, my Solis. That is where your source is. Defy even Death to protect who you need! Ward even gods away from taking what you choose to shelter! Yield not your liberty nor love to even deities my son!"

Death disappeared with a scowl. Aster held the shield as he focused on the clarity that accompanied it. He wanted to protect Stahl, by the very gods, that was all he had wanted to do since this all began.... The young king thought back to his father's advice, and combed his thoughts over, trying to see what he could not while his emotions were so fresh and validated.

'Think about what he fears?' Aster let his mind race freely on that subject. 'I once believed Stahl wasn't afraid of anything, that that cocky wolf surely must be the most brave and fearless beast I've ever met....' Aster let it continue unhindered.

'I thought he was indestructible, I thought he could go unfazed by most anything that came our way... and that led me to act so unfairly, to let him shoulder the burden for us both. It nearly broke us, and I think almost losing what we have together is the most scared I've ever seen him.'

Aster paused for a moment as he started to unravel this mess. 'When he thought he would lose me....' The young king cast his gaze down at his right arm for a moment, recalling his wolf's broken speech. "Not mine Aster... liar...."

The human touched his right arm softly to his cheek, feeling for the familiar scars that were noticeably absent. He idly let his hand go higher, feeling his longer hair tied off in the back. Aster let his gaze and touch fall lower to examine his chest beneath his shirt, noting the protector mark from the orc battle was also missing. The young king scoffed lightly at the realization, letting that weightless shield fall away at last.

"Oh, my love," Aster whispered softly, raising his gaze to settle back on his wolf's own as he continued. "What a foolish king you follow."

Aster took two slow steps towards the beast, despite Calium advising him otherwise. The young king spoke warmly to his wolf. "It is me... I just didn't realize how much has changed... How much I've changed. I'd almost forgotten how far we've come together."

Aster held his hand towards Calium, lowering it. His father took the hint, lowering his shields as well, leaving nothing between the pair but a few small paces.

Stahl was wary, and uncertain, but was holding mostly in place as the human spoke to him. "It must be hard to see me clearly through a set of eyes with different sight in each, so truly, it isn't your fault. This isn't who I am anymore, is it? This isn't your Aster, not the one you've been fighting alongside for the last few months."

The human took a step forward as he accepted the changes in himself that he was so scared to acknowledge before. To deny those changes was to deny his very growth, after all. He had been denying a part of himself, and in the process, rejecting the person he had become. It was no wonder Stahl couldn't recognize him.

Aster didn't lie to his wolf like that.

His hair was the first part to shift, the longer strands receding as they shortened in length on top. On the sides of his head, it dissipated almost entirely. His beard, however, began to thicken and sprout, the longer stubble coating his jaw with a short and scruffy coat.

Two pinkish scars sprouted from the bridge of his nose after, tracing their way towards his ear as they raced across his cheek. His physique was next, a subtle shift in musculature, bulking up to reflect his efforts under Captain Rix. On his widening chest appeared his chosen marking of the protector, the triangle with the three arrows proudly reclaiming its place on his flesh. Just a bit higher, over his right shoulder, four more scars appeared. The mark Oust had left on him was also a part of his story, after all.

The human took another step forward as he raised his right hand to his beast once more. Aster stared at his outstretched digits in a bittersweet fashion for a moment, working himself up to accepting that harder truth as well. 'Every scar and every mark bear a piece of who I am. Every change to me has been a lesson engraved on my very flesh to serve as testimony to what I have survived, to what I can achieve, and of the man I am becoming.'

The young king accepted his reality with confidence, finding he had no need to pretend he was anything except who he was anymore. After all, he was simply a human born into a world of beasts, one that was, above everything else, loved by so many as he was. How could he ever be ashamed of that?

Like thinning smoke, Aster watched his own right arm fade away, stopping on his forearm, just below his elbow. He held that arm towards his beast all the same, finally appearing in the Afterworld as the person Stahl always knew he was; the survivor.

With subtle recognition, that one silvery eye on the wolf slowly dilated as his mate finally came into focus. With a strained and raspy voice, Stahl spoke weakly. "As...ter? Mine... Aster?"

The young human king took that final step to close the distance between them, smiling up admirably at the wolf as he gently answered him. "That's right. Your Aster. It's me, it's your mate." Aster leaned in close, bringing his arms higher up the demon's sides as he spoke intimately to him.

Stahl felt that touch on both sides of his chest, finally accepting that this wasn't a lie, that his Aster hadn't abandoned him. With trembling and slow movement, the beast's darkened and deadly claws came up on both of Aster's shoulders, pulling the human closer into the embrace by the action. The wolf spoke uncertainly, his speech still ragged. "Aster... hurts, Aster."

"I know, I know it has to hurt you so badly...." The king replied softly, moving tighter into the embrace.

"NO!" Stahl Shouted, his fingers twitching as his rage spiked.

Aster quickly moved to soothe him. "It's ok! It's ok.... Just keep talking to me, I'll figure out what you mean." The king rubbed his beast in reassurance, coaxing Stahl back off edge, and nudging him to try again.

"Aster hurts... They hurts Aster. I hurts Aster...." Stahl was fighting to form the words, so many still just out of his reach. He managed to get the gist of it out in the end. "Aster hurts... mine fault...."

The silvery eye settled back on that missing hand as he stammered out his mangled logic. Aster felt his stomach drop at the disheartening confession. He lightly rubbed his left hand on his beast's side as he nuzzled closer into him.

"No Stahl, it wasn't your fault." Aster replied in a hushed tone. "Sometimes we get hurt, and sometimes it can even take a piece of us away when it happens, but that pain is a part of life."

Aster moved his hand up further, reaching up to cup the side of the wolf's corrupted face lovingly as he finished. "The short sorrows we've shared between us are mere drops in the vast ocean of our love. For every splash of pain, there were rivers of pleasure."

Stahl half whined at the words. Aster chuckled warmly, grateful that his beast was still in there. He went to speak once more. The words came out soundlessly instead as a swing of the scythe sped towards the embraced lovers.

Calium acted on behalf of his sidetracked son, catching the deity's blow before it met the pair. The fallen king trembled beneath the might, his control of the power growing ever weaker. He grunted out audaciously as his hold threatened to buckle entirely. "Don't... touch... my son!"

Stahl growled at the development, tensing up in apprehension. Aster rushed to keep him calm. "Stahl, just look at me." The young king tilted the wolf's face back down to meet his gaze before continuing, "Just look at me. Just keep talking to me... please."

"Look... at me?" Stahl muttered out unsteadily. "Don't... look at me... Aster." The beast pulled away a little as he confessed his fear. "Monster. Hurt Aster."

The young king frowned briefly as he stared up at his wolf. Even in such a state, Stahl was simply afraid for his mate. Aster ignored Death as the god disappeared, leaving Calium to drop his shield momentarily.

The human chose to soothe his knight instead. "My love, you are no monster, even like this. Although, that is a feeling I can understand...."

Aster moved closer to his wolf again, drawing in despite the warnings. "I used to be so ashamed of my body that I would lie awake at night and curse myself for being born a human... as a monster to most. But when everyone else shied away in fear, you ran to me still, and you have stayed by this monster ever since. How could you expect me to do any less?"

The king paused briefly, smiling up at the leery knight before he continued. "Just as you always silenced the voices that would belittle and instill such doubt in me, I will stay with you, and I will challenge any who would ever call you a monster, yourself included."

Aster adjusted his hand as he ended his statement strongly, lightly grabbing hold of that dangerously sharp fang accented with darkness peeking out of the beast's muzzle. "Besides, I know it's you in there..."

Stahl gazed down in wonder as the little human he had so madly fallen for amazed him yet again, reaching his mate despite such grim circumstance and hardened hearts. "Even as you are, that fanged smile of yours is unmistakable, and there is nothing I wouldn't do to see that smile shining beside me on my greatest and worst days alike."

"Fangs hurt Aster... anger...." The wolf spoke in a mere croak. Stahl wanted to believe those words so badly, but his muffled mind was just so guarded.

"Your fangs are sharp, this is true, and when you bear them you are a dangerous opponent for any to face...." Aster pulled lightly on his grip, drawing the beast's shifted face closer to his own as he looked him directly in the eye, staring as he held him where the wolf couldn't look away. "But I have never needed you to file your teeth down for me, I have never wanted that."

Aster furrowed his brow as the king gave the knight his order. "Sharpen your fangs, my knight. Keep them tucked away when peaceful times call for it, but don't you ever let them grow dull. We will have to bare them towards those who would still stand between us. Your fangs and your blades, I trust my life to them only because I know how strong and dangerous they are. You, my most reliable mate, are my sword. I am your shield.... I won't allow you to stop fighting for us, just as I will always expect you to hold me to the same standard.

Stahl felt himself waking more and more. As he stared back towards his king, he had the strangest memory come to mind. The wolf moved a little closer, pulling his lover further into his arms. Stahl craned his neck until his face rested just before Aster's own. With a voice sounding far more like the wolf the human knew, the beast asked a question the king hadn't heard since their very first moon together. "And like this? Are you scared of me now, Aster?"

The human lightly thumped his finger against that larger fang as he answered without hesitation, those golden eyes brimming with the happiest tears when he answered in kind. "Maybe just a little...."

The human pressed his warm lips firmly against that altered muzzle, holding tightly to that beloved fang of his all the while. The last sound before silence overtook their moment was more fracturing of the wolf's corrupted casing. Death's shadow was falling.

===

Jagón wasn't sure why he was even running towards the smaller cat at first, he still wasn't sure how he could feel about everything that had been brought to light so suddenly, but the panther ran to the goddess all the same. By the time he had reached her, she was doubled over and clutching at her sides in what he could only assume was severe pain.

"Alice...." Jagón started cautiously as he neared the feline. "Are you alright?" It seemed such a funny question to ask in the panther's opinion, considering what was at stake.

Alice briefly raised her weepy eyes to his own before clenching her teeth and hissing out in anguish. Her words were spoken in short and shallow bursts scattered throughout her labored breathing. "I- I think I'm fading. Even my core has decided to forsake me. The little command I still had over it wavers in favor of Cortist, but it does not understand that his body wasn't created to channel such strength. It's... it's going to consume him, Jagón. My own might is going to kill him."

The knight stared in desperation at the sun goddess, noting how truly fearful she was. Jagón had never seen Alice so humbled and vulnerable in his life. She was not a deity in this state.

"There must be something we can do." Jagón knelt before her, moving a hand to rest on her shoulder as he helped support her unsteadiness.

Alice flinched at the contact, afraid of how disgusted he must still be of her now that he knew. She answered his desperation with a tone of defeat. "I cannot command it anymore.... I cannot manage even this. I am but a mere shell of what I once was, Jagón. I have not been the great light for millennia now, not in the way I would need to remedy this.... I have not been the sun goddess in a long time."

The feline clutched at her stomach again as she sharply cried out in acute pain, collapsing forward as more of her fleeting strength was stolen from her. The arms of the knight were swift to catch her fall.

Jagón's voice was low as he answered her. "I know you aren't her anymore. You gave away so much, and it cost you more pieces of yourself than you could afford to lend. Your mercy was taken advantage of, and your heart stolen piece by piece by those that would use it for selfish gain. Who you are as a result could never be compared to who you were then. The comparison could never stand up."

Alice felt tears welling up as he confirmed her worst fears. She was useless and hollow, and the moment she had nothing else to give to the world, they buried her beneath the cities raised by her efforts and let her fade into obscurity. Alice was somewhat grateful this would be the last time she would have to be crushed by a mortal who had stolen her heart.

"After all, you were only a goddess before...." Jagón finished firmly, gently intertwining his hand with her own. He would comfort her the same as he once had before pulling her off of that slab. "What you are now is something far more profound, for a mother is capable of miracles outside the reach of even deities."

Alice's wide eyes shot up to meet his warmer gaze as she looked in disbelief. The ever-serious general cocked a half-smile as he added just a little more to his encouragement. "So, I ask you again, Lady Alice, what can we do to save our cub?"

Her pain was momentarily overshadowed as she stared at that panther with a gaze stricken with non-acceptance. She managed only a few fleeting words in response. "But... Jagón, I- Felicity—"

"Was truly a light in this world, one that always knew there was something special about our little Corty. I am going to need some time to figure this out Alice, I will not lie to you about that... but I have no doubt she was right about him. He is something even the gods would wage war over, and he inherited that great potential from you. We cannot let him be lost."

Jagón chuckled a little, making a friendly jab towards the calico cat to give her a taste of her own usual teasing in serious situations. "I'll give you some leniency since you're new to the whole parenthood thing, but the first rule of it is keeping your cubs alive. Not that they make that easy most days...."

He squeezed her hand lightly as he finished, still just staring warmly at her. Alice wasn't certain she deserved such forgiveness but seeing "Mr. Serious" actually being the playful one for a change forced a faint smile across her own maw. Another wave of the searing pain carried it away after.

She fell against his chest, clutching vainly to him as she struggled through the sensation. His arms held her steadily throughout the worst of it. When she spoke again, a light coat of sweat had began forming on her brow. "We don't have much more time... but I don't know what I can do. My power is not what it once was."

Jagón did the only thing left he could do, the only thing he could that may yet still have any impact at all in this situation. He comforted her.

His tone steadied her helplessness as his hand steadied her loneliness. "I used to think myself so much stronger in my youth. I was limber, quick, and so very skilled. As I aged, I looked back to that youth as my prime. I have never felt quite as strong or capable since, or at least, not until I awoke here with you."

The general continued strongly for the lady in his arms. "Now I see that was far from my peak, and that growth since is something to be grateful for. My joints ache on most days, my muscles tire far more easily, and I most certainly do not get around as easily as I used to... but I also no longer base my worth solely on such things. I no longer let the fading pieces of who I was distract me from what grows in its place. Wisdom, empathy, reflection, responsibility, acceptance; those are things that have come from who I am now. That small part of myself now holds far more value and strength than any of the parts that have faded from my reach. The little that remains of me still amounts to more than I ever was before."

Alice found it hard to catch a breath, but she was not certain if it was due to his speech, or his hold. Her eyes briefly cast aside, her mind rolling over what he had said. She saw the shield bearers entangled with her father and the wolf, and she let the thought come to her slowly.

'The small part left... The little that remains....' A wave of fear washed over the smaller feline as her solution came to her.

Jagón noticed this shift in presence, and made an effort to keep her talking, and to keep her supported. "Alice... you can talk to me. We've known each other for far too long for anything else."

"I... think I might have a way to stop this." The goddess whispered quietly, the uncertainty behind her tone making him question her plan in an almost immediate response.

"You don't sound very confident...." The panther leered warily towards her.

"I think it will work. I just don't know what will happen to me after. I'm... scared, if I am being honest." The smaller feline confessed her truth to him, something she was grateful she could finally start doing.

"What could the Almighty Alice ever be afraid of?" Jagón asked it sincerely, bearing her more grand title boastfully in reaffirmation, but knowing everyone had their nightmares all the same.