Chương 127: Chapter 124: Memories of Death

"How much do you know about Ithren?" The question was slow, Llyr's blue eyes studying the demon closely. Pyre hummed.

"Not much. Daphne mentioned the basics: it's part of the Alliance now, used to be super corrupt and have a big slavery problem, the bloody regime change, that sort of thing." The demon strode over and plopped down on one of the cots that was still intact. The mattress sank below her as she sat casually back.

"And I know you died during the regime change from what you said last time." Llyr's lips thinned as if he'd forgotten he'd mentioned that last part. Maybe he had. He'd been kind of out of it after their fight, even once he'd recovered from the worst of his initial panic.

"I see." His voice was clipped.

"Anything else?"

"Well, I know about the cult's blood experiments, but other than that, that's basically it." The demon cocked her head and raised an eyebrow.

"Do I need to know more to get what you're about to say?"

"Not particularly, no." Llyr idly adjusted his cloak, eyes focused on some distant spot outside the window. The sparkling waves continued to brush repeatedly against the shore. Ithren had probably bordered the ocean, too, if it was now part of the Solis Alliance. Pyre vaguely wondered if the sea looked any different on the other side of the Spine.

"What Daphne told you was correct. The old king was a depraved tyrant, and the corruption of the kingdom ran deep. The fact that a group like the one we're currently pursuing could've formed there is hardly a surprise." Llyr's voice quieted.

"The regime change was indeed a violent affair. The rebellion moved quickly. By the end of the day, the king's advisors, visiting nobles, and half the royal knights were killed. The king was the last to be captured. I believe he was executed soon after." Pyre listened silently, noting the use of that word, "believe." Her eyes narrowed. Llyr had already been dead by the time that had happened, then. A cold smile lacking any warmth spread across the siren's features. He turned away from the window and faced Pyre.

Even though his face was outwardly smooth and calm, his eyes glinted like dancing fires in the sunlight.

"When the rebels first entered the palace, the king tried to fight back, but it was futile. Once it became clear that he was outnumbered, there weren't many options left. He tried to flee, but the rebels had surrounded the palace beforehand. I think it was quite clear after the first hour what the final outcome would be." Llyr's voice was light—almost conversational.

"The king and the remaining royal knights barricade themselves inside the inner palace, but everyone knew it wouldn't last," he continued. He cocked his head.

"Do you know what the king did after that?" The healer continued without waiting for an answer. A low, dark anger grew in his voice as he spoke.

"He ordered the knights to gather all the slaves still inside the palace, chain them together, weigh them down, then throw them into the sea." Outside, the waves continued to churn rhythmically. Sunlight beamed down on the waters, lighting up the surface like glimmering jewels. With the window closed, the infirmary was completely silent save for the sound of Llyr's voice. Pyre remained in place, expression neutral as she continued to study the healer. Llyr chuckled, the sound sharp and acrid.

There was a manic gleam in his eyes as he spoke.

"It didn't matter if you were the highest ranked harem slave or the lowest gong farmer. Everyone was gathered, everyone was bound, and everyone was killed." One of his hands rose unconsciously, coming to a stop loosely near the base of his throat.

"I still remember it," he said lowly.

"All those squirming bodies sinking to the bottom of the sea, desperately clawing at the water. The weight crushing down on us, the suffocation." He closed his eyes.

"I remember the world going dark. I thought for sure that it was the end." Llyr dropped his hand and opened his eyes.

"But then, suddenly, I could breathe," he murmured. His gaze had gone distant again, and while the circumstances were wildly different, Pyre recognized what he was talking about. If she'd had her memories when she'd woken, it might've been the same for her. Dying one moment, then regaining consciousness in a new, unfamiliar body the next. She thought back to that first system notification she'd received, the one welcoming her to her new life. The most-fitting species, it had said.

To go from drowning to death to being reborn as a fish—it was ironic. The system had a dark sense of humor.

"That was when I was reborn," Llyr finished. Most of that burning rage had faded from the healer's voice, and he was outwardly calm again. Some of it still lingered, though, and Pyre doubted it would fade away any time soon. Maybe it never did. Maybe it was always there, buried under whatever act the siren was playing for the day, just waiting for a chance to resurface. This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience. She gave the healer a long look.

Her own expression had remained flat throughout the other reincarnator's recounting, and now, she studied him with that same neutrality. A few beats of silence passed before she opened her mouth.

"Why'd he order all of you killed?" It was a direct, blunt question, but it didn't seem to bother Llyr at all. He simply shrugged, the movement returned to that artificial lightness from before.

"Officially, it was to ensure that the rebellion and Solis Alliance didn't find out about the blood experiments," he replied. That explained who "the others" were from when he'd first talked about the cult. He was referring to the other slaves who'd been experimented on. Slaves who, according to him, had been subjected to far more extensive "tests." Llyr cocked his head.

"In truth, I think it was an excuse. Even if the group had never existed, he likely would've done the same thing. He was always a sick, spiteful person. When he realized he'd lost, he simply wanted to destroy as much as he could before his capture. The rebels freed the palace slaves they came across—he didn't want the rest of us to experience that happiness." The healer had gone back to idly twisting the cloth of his cloak.

He stared out the window at the ocean again, and Pyre had a vague thought that maybe this was the reason the siren had chosen to live on land despite being so much more powerful in the water. She wasn't sure where the thought or connection had come from, but it felt true to her.

"I knew the youngest prince and princess, you know. Not… Not especially well, but I spoke with them before they fled the palace to ask the Alliance for help. I'd never felt hope before, but when the rebellion first broke down the palace doors…" His voice trailed, and he smiled bitterly.

"Well, I suppose it was foolish of me."

"Did you ever talk to them again?" Pyre jerked her head at the siren for emphasis.

"After you went back to Ithren." Llyr shook his head.

"By the time I'd evolved enough to acquire a human form, several months had already passed. Ithren no longer existed. It was an entirely different place." He frowned.

"It was for the better. The prince and princess's first act was to abolish slavery, and with the Alliance's aid, they were able to rebuild and restructure at a remarkable pace. By all accounts, they'd done everything they'd promised."

"But you weren't happy," the demon guessed, voice blunt. Llyr's lips thinned.

"I should've been," he murmured.

"No one else would suffer the way I had. The king was dead. It should've been everything I'd dreamed of. If I was a good person, it would've been." He laughed lowly.

"But it wasn't. Because deep down, what I really wanted was to be able to tear everything down myself. Now I couldn't. I left for Ilyra soon after that." Slowly, the pieces clicked together in Pyre's mind. A part of her had thought that the sheer intensity of Llyr's hatred for the cult was a bit odd, especially when he'd said that he hadn't interacted with them much before dying beyond a few occasional experiments. She'd chalked it up to her own apathy issues. Now, though, a new picture was forming.

One of a fresh reincarnator still burning with the rage of his previous life's death and nowhere to turn it, only to visit Ilyra and encounter another group that had wronged him in the past. All of his anger surrounding his death and the former king would've been displaced onto the cult. That manic, frenzied hatred suddenly made a lot more sense. I wanted to tear everything down myself, he'd said. And here was finally a chance to do it. Pyre studied the healer, digesting everything he'd just said.

He'd definitely left parts out—the exact details of his life as a slave before his death were vague, and she suspected there was more to his relationship with Ithren's prince and princess than he was letting on—but he'd revealed much more than she'd expected. It was like the words had simply kept flooding out once the dam was broken.

"I bet," the demon finally said, "that it felt good to kill that group in Ilyra." A slow smile spread across Llyr's face.

"It did," he murmured.

"Though not as much as I'd hoped." His eyes darkened.

"I hope the group in Serindell is different." The words rang throughout the quiet room like both a threat and a promise. Pyre rose, the cot she'd just been sitting on now thoroughly dented from her weight. She straightened to her full height and idly scanned through the door for any temperature changes. There weren't any, and she couldn't feel any differences in the vibrations around the area, either.

"Maybe," she said simply.

"We're gonna need to find them first to figure that out, though, which means more investigating."

"Yes," Llyr murmured in agreement.

"I will do better on that front, as well." Compared to before, the siren seemed noticeably calmer. Still not perfectly calm, but more in control, at least. It seemed like speaking about his death had given him more clarity, odd as that was to think about. Pyre hummed.

"Well, I think the others're up on the second floor. Should be about done checking the bodies now, unless that doctor's extra slow." The demon turned, about to exit the infirmary and rejoin the others, but she paused at the last second when she noticed the considering look on Llyr's face. She raised an eyebrow.

"What?"

"You were reborn directly as a demon, correct?" She was pretty sure her flesh lump form had been classified as a demon, so that was probably right.

"Yeah, why?" Llyr furrowed his brows.

"I was hoping to learn more about how reincarnators and their new species are selected, but I suppose my current theory was wrong." Ah, Pyre had a feeling she knew what that theory had been. She'd had the same thought when she'd learned that Llyr had drowned, after all. The demon turned to face him fully.

"Eh, not necessarily. Technically I was reborn as a flesh lump before evolving," she said. That wasn't even bringing up the possibility that her reincarnated form was connected to her second death, not the Earth one. In fact, she was almost certain it was.

"It still kind of works."

"You fell…" Llyr murmured. He paused for a moment, thinking, then shook his head.

"The system is quite twisted."

"Careful, might want to watch what you say about the omnipotent maybe-god-thing," Pyre drawled.

"You might get smited." Llyr laughed at that. It was the first genuine laugh he'd let out since they'd left for the Alardice manor earlier that day.

"Perhaps it shouldn't have made me a reincarnator, then," he said wryly. Pyre snorted. She turned and jerked her head at the door, temporarily pushing aside both the torrent of information she'd just learned as well as the rising questions surrounding her own reincarnation. She could worry about that later. Right now, they had more immediate concerns to focus on—locating the cult being at the top of the list.

"Come on, we'd better head back before they start thinking we killed each other."