Chapter Thirty-Seven

Zelgadis stood silently as the room exploded into chaos at Jedah's words. The trouble with Jedah's story was that it was completely and totally true, right down to the name of his mother… though Zelgadis hadn't known it until the moment Jedah spoke it. It stunned him, rendered him speechless as the cacophony of noise thundered around him until Jedah lifted his hands and the room stilled once more.

"There are paths in this world that some of us take; some are paths that we never dream of taking, others are paths that have been chosen for us by others," Jedah continued after a moment. I chose my path, though it led to magic that I dared not dream of possessing."

Jedah gestured to Lina and Zelgadis, a causal motion that implicated himself as well. "Magic does fantastical things. Some of us become so steeped in it that it changes us fundamentally. We do not age as others age, do not eat or breathe, or even sleep. Sometimes what we become is so far from where we started that we dedicate our existences to returning to that which we lost."

The silence that fell was almost absolute. Everyone within the room knew the story of Zelgadis. Everyone knew the cursed youth of stone who had been Amelia's friend and then bodyguard. They all knew that he had found a cure, though it had very nearly driven him mad. Indeed, the longer Jedah gave them to think about it, the less it surprised them to think that he was Ambervale.

"I'm not perfect either; indeed I am far from it." Jedah gave a little half-smile as he turned around the room once more before stopping and looking to Amelia. With two steps, he approached the throne and lowered his gaze to the floor. "But, my Queen, you know who I am. I have stood by your side and supported you in everything that you chose to do. And while I find it extraordinarily unsettling, I feel that I must ask something of you."

"I wish to vacate my position on the Council, to relinquish it to my nephew Zelgadis. He holds rank and title that may never again return to the power that it once held, though his magic may yet be a boon to us all." Jedah chanced a glance to Naga, and thoroughly convinced that he'd end up in enough pain to happily live a year without worry, kept going.

"Rumor whispers in the shadows many things, some truths and some fictions. I would prefer to shed the veil of deceit and grant the people what they want." Jedah sensed the murmurs before they started and worked his jaw for a moment to keep from smiling as he looked up in all seriousness to the woman who was Queen.

"I swore my loyalty to you in a heated rush, a wild and unprecedented action that I do not regret." He spoke slowly, quietly, reaching up to the cord that bound his hair back from his face. Black hair tumbled freely about his shoulders as he pulled the cord free and began to wind it around his finger, looking back down as he continued.

"And I gave you my heart in a crystal goblet in a room far from here before you were Queen." Magic flared, though Jedah concealed what he was doing as he spoke once more. "My magic has been yours for years, and I have no lands with which to gift you, for I walked away from those long before I met you."

Jedah offered Amelia his hand, fingers uncurling to reveal what his magic had wrought within his closed grasp. The cord that had bound his hair had become a beautiful ring of circled gold, glittering with the remnants of the magic that had crafted it. "All I have left is to give to you myself, this fragile shell that walks this world. As long as you will have me, I, Jedaikun nels Ambervale will be yours."

Naga had thought that her off the cuff demotion of Jedah, promotion of Zelgadis and subsequent dissolution of any relations between Kyle and Amelia had been smooth. But as the ring glittered in Jedah's outstretched hand, she knew that Jedah outclassed her on so many levels that she couldn't begin to conceptualize it.

With his impromptu filibuster, Jedah had claimed Ambervale, identified himself and Zelgadis, relinquished Ambervale to Zelgadis, and then seemingly removed himself from the sphere of power in Saillune. Furthermore, he had given that power openly to the next obvious successor, again Zelgadis, and rounded it out with a confession of previous actions with Amelia (confirming the rumor that Erina was his child) and closed it with a proposal of marriage.

And by looking across the room to Lina and Zelgadis, Naga could tell that they'd both arrived at the same conclusion she had, and that they were just as flabbergasted as she was. But what, wondered Naga as she turned to look to her sister, did Amelia think?

The Queen of Saillune sat very still, and the silence in the room grew heavy and cloying. Jedah hadn't looked up, hadn't dared to try, but he felt his eyes lifting against his better judgment, his neck tilting to lift his head and his gaze to seek out hers.

She looked to him for a moment, and ever so slowly, her lips quirked. She rose from the throne, placing her hand in his, pinning the ring between their palms, and looked to the Council members within the room. "For once, I could care less what the Council says, or does. Jedaikun nels Ambervale, I, Amelia wil Tesla Saillune accept your gift, and in exchange, I give you my hand."

Jedah rose, a fluid movement pulling Amelia into him, kissing her without giving the Council a moment to react. Perhaps in time, he would lament his choice to marry the mortal Queen who had so carelessly stolen his heart. But as he had decided, as long as he stayed true to himself, he would accept whatever came of his decisions.

So he kissed her long and hard and almost didn't hear the cheers that broke out around them.