Promise goes back to sketching until they need her to let Power do something.

"...You're lying," he says finally.

"I assure you that if Nirue yet lived, we would not be having this conversation."

"How...?"

"For your purposes it would be reasonable to assume that while I was out of the world I became a god."

Another long pause. Then, "...so there's nothing left for me."

"You have the option of peacefully abdicating and then spending the rest of eternity in prison. A reasonably comfortable prison, even."

"Nothing."

"It's unfortunate that you see things that way."

"You are a stain on the family name."

"I imagine your father thought the same of you, if he had time."

"Is that a threat?"

He sighs. "No. I've come to the conclusion that I can't threaten you."

"...what?"

"If I kill you it will be because you aren't safe to leave alive. If I imprison you, the conditions of your imprisonment will depend entirely on similar practicalities. I'm not going to make your life more unpleasant merely because you annoy me. That would be petty."

"What are you?"

"An adequate Emperor, I hope."

"...fine," says Power. "So you're usurping my throne but you're going to be nice about it because my best efforts have failed to raise you with a spine."

Monument inclines his head in acknowledgment.

Power broods for a moment. Then: "...your girl over there, can she do this to anyone?"

"In what way could it possibly advantage me to answer that question?"

"—Kadiran Ruava," he blurts.

Monument's eyes widen in shock, then narrow in anger. "You are a child," he says furiously. "The very moment you conceived of the idea that you might still have a way to hurt someone—" He cuts himself off and struggles to regain his calm.

- it takes Promise a second to connect name to person but the moment it occurs to her to do it, it's too late. "Hush," she tells Power. "Apply the form of my earlier order regarding your son's name to all other persons whose names you know." She looks at Monument. "Is there anything else I should patch before I let him talk again?"

"—sorry, I need a moment," he murmurs.

Power looks like he would laugh if laughing were an available option.

"It's really kind of a good thing for you that neither of us is even slightly vindictive," Sunbeam says to Power. "I mean wow. I don't think I've ever seen him that mad."

She perches on the edge of the boat and swings her legs idly; her skirt swishes, glittering like a thousand tiny prisms in the sunlight.

"I like your dress."

"I hate this dress," she says cheerfully. "But it's lovely, isn't it? Do you want it?"

"...sure, I can alter it for wings if you don't want it."

Swish. Sparkle. "If you want more lovely clothes in approximately your size that I never want to wear again, I've got lots. It was a thing."

"I'm accustomed to the leaves but I'd just as soon skip stitching a whole new wardrobe from scratch, yes."

"Then you can have mine. I'll be glad somebody's getting some good out of it."

Meanwhile, Monument calms himself down.

Anger is not useful. Anger is not productive. Anger does not serve his goals. He already knew that his father was outrageously, pointlessly, often counterproductively horrible. This doesn't change anything except insofar as it provides evidence in support of the idea that Siurek is too dangerous to leave alive.

So.

"...As far as I am aware," he says, "there are no remaining avenues by which he might cause material harm through speech alone. At least not while he is still here with no one to talk to except us."

"Until any other witnesses exist you may speak."

"What a fucking waste," says Power.

"I could say the same to you," says Monument.

Power eyes his son thoughtfully. "How did you kill her?"

"What business is it of yours?"

"Indulge me."

He sighs. "I made her crumble into a pile of dust with magic, is that what you want to know?"

Power scoffs. "Pathetic. You don't have the stomach to take a life with your own hands."

"You and I both know that's not true," Monument says quietly.

"That girl was trash. You think I haven't figured out that you were doing her a favour?"

"And yet, the fact remains. Whether we like it or not."

"Doesn't count," he dismisses. "You didn't take it, she gave it to you."

"I find your perspective abhorrent, as usual."

Promise is clearly missing some context here.

"You know," says Power, "maybe I will help you."

"If you are planning a clever betrayal, understand that you will not be given the opportunity to carry it out."

"Yes, you've got your leafy lackey here to make sure of that, don't you? No, no. I said I'd help and I meant it."

"I'm listening."

"I'll go along with whatever political horseshit you cook up, as long as you promise me that when you kill me afterward, you'll look me in the eye and do it yourself. No magic, no having your new friend tell me to drop dead."

"...why."

"Because if the only thing left to me is the chance to haunt you, I'll take it! And it'll do you good to act like a man for once!"

"When you had your father killed you weren't even present!"

"I knew you'd be too much of a coward."

"If you doubt for one moment that I can fulfill your request, you really don't understand a single thing about me."

"I understand enough to know you will never be anything other than a disappointment."

"...all right," says Monument, "I had expected that you would have a breakdown over your sudden powerlessness, but I concede that you do, in fact, still have the power to hurt me. Congratulations. I accept your offer."

"I don't believe you."

"Oh? And now which of us is the coward?"

Power snarls. "Don't just—stand there with that look on your face—"

"Ah. So you want to not only hurt me but see me be hurt. That might be harder to arrange."

...leafy lackey?

"Is this what you've been like this whole time, underneath—"

"Yes. It's remarkably satisfying to finally be able to speak freely in your presence."

"And until now you were, what, afraid of me?"

"Yes. We both know that you'd have killed me at the first sign that I thought you unfit for the throne."

"Unfit?"

"You don't care about the well-being of your subjects, which I acknowledge is not a metric you've ever thought to judge yourself on, but you also don't even care enough about your own sybaritic lifestyle to do the work to maintain it. If you didn't have friends willing and able to do your job for you, the empire would already have collapsed."

"That's not true."

"Isn't it? Would you like me to get my notes? What do you think I do in my rooms all day? I study the functioning of the empire."

"So you're taking my throne out of - pity for the common man?"

"If that's how you'd like to put it."

"And then what? Rule the world forever as its immortal god-emperor, serving your people without thought for yourself?"

"Approximately."

"You are such an unbelievable waste," says Power disgustedly. "Do you know what I'd do with that kind of power...?"

"I could guess."

"Isn't there anything you want?"

"I want to live in a world where no one ever has to suffer. I will settle for the closest I can get."

"You disgust me."

"The feeling is mutual."

"If you're going to depose me in the name of your visions of peace and prosperity I want you to live out the rest of your immortal reign knowing you murdered your father in cold blood."

"And that's a bargain I'm content to make if it means my reign can begin more peacefully than it might have."

"Be less content."

"I've been hiding my pain since I was six years old. It's not a trivial habit to break."

"Make an effort."

"Is this really what you want? You'd rather die while inflicting maximum emotional damage on everyone within reach than live a peaceful eternity without the power to torture anyone?"

"So far I've barely seen evidence that you have emotions!"

What a weird person.

"You may find this hard to believe, but I don't actually want to kill you."

"Could've fooled me."

"How is it you've lived half a century in this world and you still haven't noticed that people sometimes have benevolent motives? I may not like or understand your worldview but I am at least aware that there are people who think that way."

"Maybe you do have benevolent motives, but here you are, continuing the family tradition just the same."

"The parallels have not escaped me."

"Then why do you keep insisting you're nothing like me?"

"Because I don't want to be anything like you! I reject your worldview, I reject your aesthetics, I reject your priorities, I reject your approach to governance! I am removing you as Emperor not out of any personal ambition but because it would be unconscionable not to!"

"What use is a conscience?"

"If I were the type to pursue what I personally want at the expense of what I think is right I would have killed myself when I was eight."

...that's childhood for mortals? Maybe? Promise is not sure how children.