"Hi, Alice."
Elliot's voice cut through the room in a surprising manner that was far too casually for what was happening right now but Kai loved that about the guy. He knew how to be out of it in most stressful situations.
Alice turned toward them slowly. In her hands sat a strange glass globe, smooth and flawless, and inside it a cube suspended in midair, rotating lazily.
Before anyone could react, the globe vanished from her hand and It reappeared instantly in Kai's hand.
He weighed it once, smirked and then glanced toward Ember.
"Well then,Ember" Kai said lightly, "how about a little family reunion?"
Then he squeezed and the globe shattered.
At that same moment a bright white light burst outward, blinding and swallowing the room whole.
And just then, something hit the floor hard.
When the light cleared, Quentin was sprawled across the ground, coughing, his palms pressed to the stone as he pushed himself off of the floor.
Beside him was Umber with his horns out and his eyes widened with raw, animal panic at where he is.
"No—no no no no no—" Umber scrambled backward.
Kai clapped once.
"Oh yes. Yes, yes, yes." His grin widened. "Welcome home, Umber."
Margo staggered, blinking. "What the fuck was that?"
Kai waved a hand. "Oh yeah, that light was just for theatrical flair. Ignore it."
Ember froze.
The cake slipped from his hands and hit the floor with a dull splat as he started at his presumed dead brother.
"Umber…" His voice broke into something soft, disbelieving and happy. "You're alive."
Umber looked at him like he was seeing a ghost.
"I—I thought you were dead," Ember said, breath hitching. "I thought Martin killed you."
Something shifted in Umber's expression. Fear twisted into realization.
"He—he—"
His eyes lifted and looked around the room before they landed on Kai.
Kai raised a hand cheerfully and greeted the god because that was the most polite thing to do.
"Hi."
Umber flinched.
Kai tilted his head, studying Umber like a scientist watching a reaction begin.
"Uh, you've got a more urgent matter at hand," he said, nodding pointedly at Ember.
Ember's magic was already boiling at that point.
"You ran," Ember said, voice low and shaking. "Didn't you?"
Kai smiled wider as the realization set in for Ember.
"Oh, he ran," Kai said smoothly. "Ran and left you all alone, Ember."
Umber shook his head. "No—listen—"
Kai stepped closer with his voice dropping low, sliding right into Ember's ear like poison poured gently.
"He left you to grieve a loss he never suffered," Kai murmured.
"He let you fear an enemy you shouldn't have."
"He let you believe you were weak… when he was just a coward."
Ember's fists clenched at the fact that he knew that what the boy said was the truth.
The air screamed as Umber exploded in rage.
"Shut up!" Umber shouted.
His magic lashed out fast and Instinctive with any prompt unlike what mortals use and from this close range it was more deadly than anyone imagined, which was why Kai didn't even see it coming.
A razor-thin arc sliced through the space between them and cut clean across Kai's left arm.
Blood hit the floor as Kai sucked in a sharp breath. "Oh." Sweat broke instantly across his face as he staggered back a bit, eyes snapping to Ember, still smiling at the enraged god.
He struggled and laughed softly.
"See?" Kai said. "What a coward your brother is."
Then, his knees buckled and he collapsed to the floor.
The shock rippled through the throne room immediately.
"KAI!" Alice shouted.
The cry echoed just as Kai hit the marble floor, blood streaking from his side with his breath coming out ragged. Margo and Elliot were already moving towards him and Quentin just froze there, caught between disbelief and dread.
"Enough of this," Ember snarled.
He seized his brother by the throat and lifted him off the ground with ease and against the wall. Umber gasped, hands clawing uselessly at Ember's wrist.
"Brother, please—" Umber choked.
Ember's eyes burned. "He's right," he said coldly. "You really are nothing more than a coward. A disgrace to your status."
"No—no—no," Umber panicked. "He's playing you brother!"
But Ember's grip tightened.
"He is playing me," Ember agreed softly. "And I've realized something, brother."
His mouth opened.
Umber's eyes widened in pure terror as a stream of shimmering golden dust poured from him, drawn violently into Ember.
After a few moments Umber collapsed to the floor, lifeless.
Ember turned slowly toward the gathered people of Fillory,
"Now then," he said calmly. "For this to end as well."
KNOCK. KNOCK. KNOCK.
A cheerful voice drifted in from beyond the throne room doors.
"Yo-hooo! Anybody home? Big bad heretic out here!"
The doors then creaked open and to their shock, Kai walked in. He took one look at Umber's body.
Then at Ember and then at the other him with the arm severed, power still flaring uselessly.
"…Wow," Kai said, whistling. "Okay. That was uncalled for."
Quentin blinked as he stared at the new Kai. "What—?"
Kai clapped his hands once.
The bleeding Kai on the floor evaporated into mist, "Surprise," Kai said brightly. "Illusion work, man. You've gotta love those spells when they're not being used on you, that is."
Ember roared. "ENOUGH!"
He reached for his power and…
Nothing happened, his expression faltered and slid into confusion as he tried again. Still nothing.
Kai tilted his head. "What's wrong?" he asked gently. "Can't… get it up?"
The concern in his voice was almost sincere to all of them and they would have believed it if they didn't knoe him better.
"My powers," Ember said, horrified. "They're, they're not working."
Kai nodded slowly. "Oh? Is that so?" He hummed. "Maybe try harder. You know… it might just be the added portion of Umber."
That earned him several stunned looks.
Ember tried again. And again.
Nothing.
He turned on Kai, fury bleeding into fear. "What have you done?"
Kai scoffed as his gentle expression suddenly changed into one of scorn, "You gods and your hubris."
He began circling Ember lazily, within his hands behind his back.
"You lot are always so full of yourselves," Kai continued,"So convinced you're untouchable. And yet?" He chuckled. "You're the easiest beings in existence to trick."
He stopped by a tray on the side table, picked up one of the small decorative cakes, and took a bite.
"Delicious little things, aren't they? Well you see I laced them"
Ember's eyes widened. "What—"
"I said I laced them," Kai repeated himself while still chewing. "Ground-down particles of a magic-restraining metal. Very rare and very annoying." He swallowed. "Powered, of course, by the magic of another god."
"What?" Ember whispered.
"Oh yes," Kai said brightly. "See, I recently tricked and imprisoned one of your kind. Took a hefty portion of its power." He shrugged. "Then gave it to a drunk in a castle to help convert it for me. Think of him as a… battery."
He tapped his temple.
"My minions ground it down with a spell, infused it into the metal I'd already prepared, and voilà." He gestured to the tray. "Dessert."
Kai grinned.
"And my favorite world-hopper brought me the final ingredient." He sighed happily. "Honestly? Team effort."
"But, you should watch out for the iron content," Kai said casually.
He then looked at Josh, "Other than diabetes, what else should I be expecting?"
Josh blinked. "Uh… iron poisoning, I guess?"
Kai froze.
"…Iron poisoning?"
There was a very brief, very real flash of panic on his face. Margo immediately rolled her eyes.
"Oh my god, relax. You're an unkillable immortal vampire you twat. Remember? Cosmic horror. Rings any bells?"
Kai paused, "Ohhh Yeah, that's right I can't be killed."
Ember finally snapped... again
"ENOUGH!" he screamed, his voice rattling the walls. "You will not ignore me! I command you to fix this—"
Kai then blurred forward, he stepped in and drove a vicious elbow straight into Ember's face.
The impact cracked through the room like thunder as one of Ember's horns snapped, and the shockwave alone blasted everyone else backwards. Eliot, Quentin, Alice, even the air itself recoiling as Ember slammed into the ground.
Kai stood over him.
His eyes shifted with his pupils narrowing, his irises darkening and the black veins graced his face. That unmistakable vampiric visage settling over his face as the room seemed to grow colder.
When he spoke, his voice was low, flat and deadly calm.
"You have no authority here," Kai said.
"You don't give orders. You don't make demands. You don't raise your voice."
He stepped down hard on Ember's chest, pinning him to the ground.
"Especially not to me." Ember struggled, panic finally bleeding through his rage.
"I—I don't understand," he gasped. "Why can't I feel my authority? Why can't I—"
Kai tilted his head.
"Oh, about that."
A thin smile made its way onto his face.
"We're not where you think we are anymore."
Alice frowned. "What do you mean?"
Quentin blinked. "Yeah, we're still in the castle."
Then his eyes widened.
"Oh my god."
Alice turned to him in sudden reality as well. "When?"
Margo and Eliot, looked equally confused at both Quentin and Alice: "What?"
Kai finally looked away from Ember.
"Before I came in, I was with my minions. The ones I mentioned earlier."
He shrugged.
"And what did they do? Simple. They cast a spell."
He leaned closer to Ember, voice dropping to a whisper.
"One that shifted every occupant of this castle into a special sub-dimension of my own making."
"My prison world."
Eliot swore. "Holy shit, that bright flash of light earlier—"
Kai turned and nodded, "Yeah, that was the spell activation."
Then, as if this were the most normal thing in the world, he said,
"Now then."
Kai placed his hand on Ember's chest.
It began to glow red.
Ember screamed in fear.
"No—no, wait—don't do this," Ember begged. "You shouldn't, please I swear I won't destroy Fillory, I'll leave it alone, I'll—"
Kai stood up, unimpressed with a look of disgusted, "A god shouldn't beg," he said calmly.
"And a god who does beg doesn't deserve the title of a god." He clapped his hands once.
Ember vanished in a scream, dissolving into motes of fading light.
Silence fell again and Kai dusted his hands.
"Well. That's done."
He tapped his foot and a brilliant white flash swallowed the room.
When the light faded, everything was… normal.
Eliot stared around. "What just happened?"
Kai thought about it.
"Oh, uh let's see. We baited and rage-baited two divine beings into being enemies teleported a magical castle into a pocket dimension, watched a god kill another god, stripped the victor of his authority, eliminated that god too…"
He shrugged.
"And now we're back in the normal dimension."
Everyone stared him which made Kai smile.
"Finally. Crisis averted. All in a day's work."
He paused, then tilted his head thoughtfully.
"Huh. That means this is the end of Season Two, isn't it?"
Margo snapped, "What the fuck are you talking about?"
Kai laughed.
"Nothing."
He turned away, already walking.
"No, scratch that. That's done."
He glanced back over his shoulder.
"On to the next."