Ascension Of The Villain

For a moment, Vyan and Celeste stood frozen as droplets of blood colored the floor. Her eyes were wide with surprise, but his gaze was steady. A thin smile curled his lips, yet it never reached his eyes.

"Hard choices, Tia?" Vyan murmured, his voice eerily calm. "I don't see much of a dilemma here. Either let your nephew rot in some dank cell, or, you know, don't. It shouldn't be as hard as brewing a potion."

"Why…" Celeste asked, her voice tinged with disbelief. "Why aren't you surprised?"

Vyan scoffed derisively. "Surprised? Please, Tia, give me some credit. I might not have a crown on my head, but I am not stupid. Only a handful of people outside my estate would know how to restrain me—a mage—properly. And I am pretty sure you are familiar with the kind of restriction I am referring to, right?"

There was also her slip-up from just now—when she mentioned his head injury. Almost the entire empire knew about his abduction by now, but only a few people knew the specifics. And one of them would be his captor.

The knife clattered to the floor, a dull thud echoing her defeat. Celeste crumbled to her knees, her face collapsing into her hands as tears streamed down her cheeks."I am so sorry, Vee. I didn't mean to hit you so hard."

Even as she covered her face and sobbed into her palms, Vyan didn't feel an ounce of pity for her. All he felt was a boiling disgust, coiling tighter and tighter in his chest.

"I am not the one you should be apologizing to," he spat out, his throat feeling painfully hoarse. "Oh, unless you want to apologize for lying to me this entire time. I mean, is anything you told me about yourself true? Did Empress Jade even isolate you or was that all just a made-up story to get my sympathy?"

"It's true. All of it is true. I didn't lie to you about anything, Vee," she said, her voice breaking. "I just... I kept some things from you."

"Oh, kept some things?" Vyan laughed, a harsh and mocking sound that sliced through her defenses. "Right, like you 'kept' pretending to care about your nephews. But you never did, did you? If you did, you wouldn't have tried to keep me from reaching Ash—oh, wait, scratch that. You were in on his imprisonment from the start, weren't you?"

"No, Vee, I wasn't!" she cried out, desperation climbing into her voice as she looked up at him, tear-streaked and broken. "I only found out about Ash later, and by then... I had no choice but to stay quiet."

Vyan said nothing. He stared down at her with a chilling, unfeeling gaze, as if he were examining a stain on the floor rather than a person.

"You have to believe me, okay?" Celeste pleaded. "When I found out, Ronan was just a toddler…" She sniffled, her words stumbling over the raw emotion choking her. "Edgar threatened me—said that if I so much as breathed a word to anyone, he would…" Her sobs shook her frail frame. "He would hurt our son. Because… Ash's power—Edgar was obsessed with it.

That surge of mana made him feel invincible, and he was so addicted to that feeling. He wouldn't have hesitated to actually harm—" She choked on her words, dissolving into a mess of tears.

"So, you sacrificed Ash instead? You never tried to get him out?"

"I couldn't, even if I wanted to—"

"What I am asking is, did you ever even try?"

Silence. Her answer was nothing but the soft, pitiful sound of her sniffles.

"Exactly what I thought." Vyan's sneer was a venomous slash, his fury barely caged.

"I am sorry, Vee," she whimpered. "I know it was selfish of me, but I was too scared to go against Edgar—"

"Scared, eh?" Vyan's voice was laced with cold, cutting sarcasm. "Didn't you once tell me how you wanted to avenge your sister and your nephews? What happened to that boldness, huh? Is this how you planned to do it? Forget revenge—you didn't even save the one person you could! Ash was so close, right under your nose, with a tunnel that led right into his cell from your basement!"

His voice got louder, unable to control his emotions any longer. "So don't you dare say you couldn't! The truth is, you never wanted to help him! You left him to rot in solitary confinement for sixteen goddamn years!"

He crouched down to her level, gripping her shoulders with a force that made her wince. "Do you even know what it's like to live in solitary confinement?" His eyes were blazing with a mix of anger and anguish.

Celeste's lips trembled, her eyes wide and speechless.

"No, you don't. Neither do I. We both can't even begin to imagine something that breaks the mind like that!"

"I… I am so sorry…"

Vyan took a sharp breath, trying to rein in his trembling rage. "You know what the worst part is? Not only did you not save him yourself, but you also tried to keep me from finding him. You didn't even tell me you knew where he was. And there I was, running in circles, tearing myself apart, trying to find my brother!

If you had told me, even that night before I went down into that cursed tunnel, maybe—just maybe—I could have found a way to forgive you. But instead, you tried to stab me..." His voice cracked, a tear slipping down his cheek. "Literally in the back."

Celeste buried her face in her palms once again, unable to face his eyes that were now glistening with unshed tears. "I… I lost my head, Vee. I-I-I thought if I didn't stop you, Edgar would suspect I told you about Ash, and he would try to hurt Ron—"

"Stop it," he whispered, his voice barely audible but carrying the weight of a thousand heartbreaks. "Please, just stop it. Stop using your kids as a shield for your cowardice. You are making me feel second-hand embarrassment… for my poor mother."

Celeste's body trembled violently, each breath a shuddering gasp, as she crumbled under her own shame and guilt.

"Just admit it, Tia," Vyan continued, his voice heavy with a resigned sadness. "You never really cared about us—not the way you care about your own. And that's fine. Honestly, it is. If I have kids one day, I will probably care about them more than anyone else too. But at least I wouldn't lie and pretend I loved anyone else the same.

So don't insult me by saying we were like your children. Because we never were. If we had been, you wouldn't have thrown Ash to the wolves like that."

"I won't say that again. I am sorry. I still... I still do care for you—"

"Please, save your breath." He wiped away the lone tear on his cheek with a swift swipe of his hand and straightened up, casually dusting off his pants as if she were nothing more than a speck of dirt. "Not that it matters anymore. I am going to save Ash, and after that, both he and I will have no more ties to you. Consider us done."

"Wait, no—you can't save Ash," Celeste blurted out, her voice suddenly sharp with an eerie clarity.

Vyan arched an eyebrow, his expression as icy as ever. "And why, pray tell, can't I?"

"If you save Ash, I will be blamed," she said desperately. "Edgar will know it's you and he will assume I told you, and you know Jade will be right there, pouring oil on the fire. And Ron and Kate… they will—"

"For heaven's sake, could you be any more self-centered and ridiculous?" Vyan spat, disgust twisting his face. This woman, the one he used to affectionately call Tia—the very nickname Aster had crafted from 'Celestia,' the name her father used for her—now seemed like a stranger.

Celeste scrubbed away her tears with the back of her hand and pushed herself to stand. Her gaze locked onto him, steadier now despite her red, swollen eyes. "I am serious, Vee."

Vyan laughed right in her face, a harsh, mocking sound that echoed off the cold stone walls. "Serious? You couldn't even stand up to Empress Jade. What in the world makes you think you can stop me? Just because I have been a sweetheart to you until now, do you really believe I am that easy to take on?"

"It's not that I think you are easy to defeat," she replied. "It's just that I have ammunition against you. And I won't hesitate to use it."

He stepped closer, his smirk widening into a wolfish grin. "Oh, really? Do tell."

"I will expose you, Vee," Celeste declared, her voice trembling slightly but gaining strength. "All your schemes, every underhanded thing you have done. I can prove that you..." She swallowed hard, her throat visibly tightening. "That you are no different than your treacherous parents."

Their eyes locked in a clash of wills, each daring the other to back down.

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