Chapter Text
"You did this! You made her this way!" K'Surda snarled before he could finish his sentence. The sheer audacity would have made her speechless if she wasn't so angry at his attempt to distance himself from any influence, any blame, any sort of indication that Vaylin's violence and cruelty was entirely a product of his manipulations. "It's all you do, you twist people into monsters and watch them for entertainment!"
"Is that right?" Valkorion slowly looked back her, leaving the frozen image of Vaylin sitting on the throne behind.
His eyes bored into her and K'Surda clenched her fists, snarling at him, "I wouldn't expect you to even comprehend what you do. You don't even think like any normal person, you think you're my ally, that you've never been my enemy! How? All you've done is orchestrate harm against me or the things I care about!"
"And you attacked me in my sanctuary."
"You had to be stopped, you were doing nothing but cause harm."
"Then why are my children any different?"
K'Surda switched her attention to Vaylin on the throne, her forearms bare and marked with black ink. She could feel the malevolent intent buried in them, feel his influence lingering. Arcann's shocked look flashed through her mind and she shook her head. He knew all too well about drowning.
Valkorion chuckled, looking out at the stars. "You don't have an answer because they are no different."
She glared at his back. "You're a monster who murdered his way through life because it amused him. Not because you were broken or tortured or screwed around as a child but because it amused you and you wanted to see how far you could push your power. They didn't get a choice. They suffered your amusements and your games because there wasn't a way out. They were children. Children rely on their parents for guidance and you murdered yours. Vaylin and Arcann are products of you."
He didn't look at her, only responding with an amused, "as are you."
Fire burned through her veins and she stepped towards him, back straight. "I'm not your puppet," she growled.
Valkorion turned his head to regard her with one molten eye. "No, but I find your protestations intriguing, if trivial."
This world around them shifted and they stood on Voss's burning surface once more. "Was this world not doomed since you first walked upon it? Was it not you who left it to be ravaged by madness in your wake? What difference does her attack truly make when you sealed its fate years ago?"
The words cut through her like razor wire. "I did," she said coldly. "But I'm not about to be judged by you."
"I do not judge, I commend. Your destruction was for a purpose, to overcome a perceived foe. This is wanton destruction, a torch where fine tools would have served better."
"If you care so much for precision maybe you should have taught her better instead of breaking her."
"I'm sure if you try hard enough, Vaylin will stop trying to kill you just long enough to see you proven wrong. You cannot fix her."
She bristled, her gut twisting on itself in a furious, hot coil. "Enough!"
Time resumed and the hot, ashen air of Voss-Ka came back to her. K'Surda blinked, felt Lana's hand on her shoulder, and turned away from the landing area where Arcann once stood.
They had work to do.