Chapter 388 — The Mystery of Amber's Origins
Blade of Dawn · Page 1 of 3
A civil war—a true civil war.
Unlike the armed clashes that broke out among the nobles of a region, unlike the limited wars lords waged to redraw the boundaries of their lands, and unlike even the military campaign Gao Yang was preparing to reclaim control of the southern frontier, what Ansul was about to face would be a genuine civil war.
The once-again divided royal house and the Border Duke would be the instigators of this war, its leaders, its participants.
And behind it all stood the End of All Things, a cult cloaked in shadow and steeped in mystery.
Their power had swelled to such an extent!
Gao Yang was nearly dumbstruck. With a trace of astonishment he studied Clement before him. Though this high-ranking cultist had already been reduced to a puppet under the control of Tyr's tendrils, he still could not help regarding the man who had just lit the fuse of civil war with new eyes. "What exactly are you hoping to achieve by setting off this civil war?"
A flicker of struggle crossed Clement's face, as though the last shred of his will was fighting to resist answering this crucial question, but after a moment he spoke anyway, his voice low and muddled: "All we want is a war... any kind of war..."
"You want war?" Gao Yang's brows knit tightly. "What do you want war for?!"
Clement let out a string of garbled mutterings. Tyr gave a soft hum, and at once a faint halo of light rippled across the surface of those tendrils, shattering what little resistance remained in Clement's will. "War... brings abundant... raw material..."
Gao Yang pressed on relentlessly: "Raw material? Raw material for what?"
Clement let out a tormented, low growl, while Tyr gave an odd little "Hm?"
"There's an extremely powerful psychic seal... stronger even than my Voice of the Deep," the siren lady said, a hint of helplessness in her expression. "It just erased a portion of his memory... I didn't even have time to observe how it took effect."
"There's something like that?" Gao Yang was startled. He had not expected these cultists to have left such a "safety lock" inside the mind of a high-ranking member. He then tried several different approaches to question Clement from the side, hoping to glean some lingering clue, but the result was, as expected, nothing at all.
Now he could only be certain of the following facts:
Prince Edmund had taken part in the killing of his father and maintained some manner of wary, delicately balanced "cooperation" with the End of All Things; Prince Edmund's aim was to end the Second Dynasty's status as a "puppet royal house" and seize absolute control of the entire nation—and on that foundation, he doubtless had many further plans; the Church of the Myriad Realms required war to supply them with some kind of "raw material," and whether it was civil war within Ansul or war between Ansul and Typhon, either would serve their purposes; the power of the End of All Things lurked within Typhon, and that Luoyan? Augustus the Great was very likely a collaborator of the End of All Things as well...
That was the sum total of the intelligence he could obtain from Clement.
After the questioning ended, Gao Yang glanced at Amber, who stood beside him, and prompted, "Didn't you have questions too? Go ahead and ask."
Amber looked at Gao Yang, then at Clement, and then, gritting her teeth, drew something out from within her garments.
She held it up before Clement's eyes. "I heard you earlier—do you know the origins of this ring?"
It took a long while for Clement's clouded gaze to focus on Amber's hand. He muttered in a low voice: "The Shadow Signet... an ancient ring..."
"Do you know why this ring ended up in the hands of the King of Ansul?" Amber fixed her eyes on Clement's. On her face Gao Yang saw, for the first time, such a complex expression—grave, earnest, expectant, and tinged with unease.
Where did this ring come from? Did it seem to hold some great significance for Amber?
Gao Yang could not help growing curious.