“Yes, yes. I’m glad to see you haven’t changed one bit in the past one hundred years,” the white-robed thaumaturge replied. “Truly the same musclehead you’ve always been.”
“What? And you have?” Cirayus asked, his voice dripping with suspicion.
Saunak slammed a button on the elevator, bringing it to a jerking halt. He turned, staring Cirayus in the eyes.
“What is this?” Cirayus asked, immediately on guard. “What tricks are you up to now, Saunak?”
“You’ll find a century alone does a lot of things to a demon, Cirayus. Plenty of time to think, you see? And meditate.” Saunak fell silent, then continued in a lower voice, “I’ve… reflected upon some of the actions I took back then. I suspect I would not repeat those experiments now. There are other ways. Better ways. Slower, perhaps, but only in the short-term. It’s the long-term that truly matters, in the end.”
“You want me to forgive you!” Cirayus said incredulously.
“Nothing of the sort,” Saunak replied, a hair too quickly. “I just—”
“Don’t tell me you think that repenting at this point does anything for you? I know you’re not that naïve. If you think for an instant it’ll erase the atrocities you’ve committed…”
“I don’t,” Saunak replied flatly. “No one can change the past, Cirayus. You know this better than most.”
“Aye. Aye, that I do. And I also know what too little too late looks like, Saunak. I’m staring at it.”
“I… don’t know what all he did,” Vir ventured, “but isn’t it good that he’s changed?”
“Lad, don’t let him deceive you. This demon has killed hundreds in the name of research.”
“And I acknowledge that,” Saunak shot back. “But you cannot ridicule me without also acknowledging the many thousands—nay, tens of thousands of lives—my inventions have saved. Who brought pranic tablets to the Demon Realm? Who helped the Panav tap into their true healing potential? Who educated the realm of the weak points of the dozens of Ash Beasts? Have you ever once considered that, to this day, demonkind happily uses the fruits of my labor, all while reviling me as evil?”
Saunak stepped back, taking a deep breath to calm himself. “Do you not see the hypocrisy?
“No. It matters not,” he continued, activating the lift again. “I have never worked for fame or glory. Hate me all you want. I know what I’ve contributed to my people. And I know it is more than any other demon alive.”
Cirayus’ expression remained grim. Did he perhaps agree with Saunak’s words?
Vir could understand the complexity of the situation. On the one hand, Saunak had quite obviously committed atrocities against demons. He’d admitted to it himself, after all. Yet those very atrocities brought about benefits that might have saved innumerable lives. How was he to be judged, then? As a hero? Or a criminal?
Vir couldn’t decide. One thing he knew, if the Demon Realm truly considered him a criminal, then why hadn’t they also ceased using his inventions? Wasn’t he right? Wasn’t that a form of hypocrisy?
These questions lingered in Vir’s mind as the lift descended below the entrance hall, continuing underground, and plunging them into near-darkness. Only a single red-light ring shone above them, casting a menacing glow upon the lift.
The floors ceased, replaced by bare rock and metal framing that surrounded the shaft.
“As you can see, this part of the compound is even more secure than the tower.”
“More secure?” Vir asked. “Have you even had any security issues during your time here?”
“None,” Saunak announced proudly. “No Ash Beast has found its way inside. But why should that matter? One can never be too safe.”
“Paranoia,” Cirayus scoffed.
“And what’s wrong with that?” Saunak countered. “Only the paranoid survive. Perhaps Shari and Maion would have, had they shared my sentiment.”
Vir bit his lip. He suspected no amount of paranoia would’ve saved them. Certainly not his mother…
After descending several hundred feet underground, the lift slowed, and more brightly lit floors revealed themselves.
“Welcome… to my lab,” Saunak said theatrically, stepping proudly off the lift into a dazzlingly white room.
Vir didn’t even know where to rest his eyes. Every square inch of the lab was filled. Either by tables with books, tables with beakers, tables with suspicious instruments that looked like implements of torture, or worse.
On the far walls, packed from floor-to-ceiling, were cages. Innumerable, and of identical sizes, many contained Ash Beasts of all sorts. In them, Vir saw several of the foes he’d fought in the Ash, along with some he’d never seen.
But unlike their wild brethren, these made no noise. In fact, they barely moved at all.
“Harmless, I assure you,” Saunak said. “They’re boisterous in the beginning, of course, but the months and years of imprisonment beat the resistance out of them.”
“And you say you’ve changed,” Cirayus spat. “Still up to the same antics as when you were Arch thaumaturge for the Garga. Still violating the sovereign rights of other beings. How is this any different from the vile research that led to your banishment?”
He’s Gargan? Vir thought. Cirayus had never mentioned that fact. Probably because he found the very thought distasteful. That’s interesting, though. I wonder if he harbors any lingering attachment to his people.
“Your eyes fail you in your old age, Cirayus. It is different,” Saunak said, holding up a finger. “It is nothing alike. These are Ash Beasts, not demons. Beings that have lost their minds long ago. My work here involves trying to restore some semblance of sanity to these poor creatures. To see if we might cure Ash Beasts—and thus, unfortunate demons—who lose themselves to prana poisoning.”
“What about those?” Vir asked, pointing to some animals sporting mechanical limbs instead of their natural ones.
“Eh.” Saunak shrugged. “Just some other experiments.”
Uh, right…
Vir’s eyes landed on a table filled with schematics. Walking over for a closer look, he frowned. They showed a… contraption, though it didn’t resemble any Vir had seen before. It looked vaguely like the Altani’s fast attack airships, though it was smaller. Much smaller.
“These are airship designs, aren’t they?”
Saunak clapped in joy. “Right you are, boy! A result of five years of effort. A dead end, sadly.”
“Why? What’s wrong?”
The mad thaumaturge threw his hands up in defeat. “They need far too much prana to operate, I’m afraid. Tricky to control, too. And how am I going to test it? I only have one life, and as compliant as my Ash Beast friends are, they make for awful pilots.”
“We’d best move on,” Cirayus suggested, two of his hands idly grasping Sikandar’s hilt. The enormous weapon lay draped across his back, which made navigating around the clutter-filled room somewhat problematic for the giant.
“Don’t you dare knock anything over,” Saunak said, eliciting a scoff from Cirayus.
“Please. I’m not some child only a few decades old.”
A few decades? Vir balked. Did all demons think along similar time horizons? Or was it just Cirayus?
“Fine,” Saunak spat, before turning to Vir. “Tell me, boy. Do you have anyone close to you?”
What kind of question is—