Golden statue

Three days have passed. Three days during the time everyone could admire the delegation that came with King Faerdrid hanging upside down drying in their clay prison in the sun. 

Zaelia was waiting, patiently sitting on her throne. She was admiring them, wondering if they died from asphyxia, hunger, or perhaps something else. Her expression was something terrifying for anyone crossing her eyes. All this time, nobody dared to speak with her anymore. They were waiting. Not knowing what would happen after. If Zaelia was always a leader beloved for her ambition and inspiring fear in her enemies, she was now terrifying her own people. During these days, Xzander stayed in the corner of the throne room, watching the marks on her back with sadness. His childhood friend was lost, she was only a shadow of herself. 

Her body was different, Archanium's influence was more and more visible. Anyone else would have been transformed into a god and left the mortal realm, but she had refused this honor. Condemning herself to remain between the two. Neither human nor goddess, she was something else. Xzander was watching from afar the golden eyes, the golden marks. Even her position while standing changed. She was not human anymore, and she refused to ascend. With all the love he had for her since always, he had to admit that she became something else, she became a mistake. The only thing he didn't know was how far this would go, and he was scared to know the answer.

Her hands were joined in front of her face, her arms resting on her knees. Waiting patiently with a large smile and sparkle in the eyes. 

From the bottom of the fifty steps leading to the golden columns and the throne, the bodies looked like mud statues on their metal support. Alejandro disappeared, and Xzander suspected that he left the city right after helping Zaelia to build the structure she used. He probably couldn't bear the fact that it was his idea that provoked this. The rumor spread quickly that humans were inside the clay and people were asking questions, nobody except Zaelia and the few servants knew what would happen next. For those who knew, they refused to speak about it, to put words on the situation.

The statues were finally dry, Zaelia stood up and called for a few servants. Xzander found the courage to talk to her, to ask her what he didn't want to know. 

"What are you doing now that they are dead? Why do you want to keep them?"

The servants were moving the structures to another location. Zaelia didn't turn her shiny eyes from the statues. She answered Xzander in a whisper.

"You will see. I don't want to spoil the surprise, my friend. Believe me, Archanium will love it."

The structures were brought far from the city, in an isolated place. A place with fire red ants. As soon as the statues were left in the middle of the anthills, the insects went out, called by the smell of the meat. They entered through the holes under the feet of the clay statues and devoured everything inside. Xzander followed her, and he knew this vision would remain in his mind forever. 

"Zaelia! What are you doing!?"

She had a laugh as she watched him and placed a finger on her lips.

"Shhh, he will love it, you too, you will all love it."

Xzander was trembling, he felt his body weaker and weaker. The ants were rapid, they were a red wave, destroying everything inside the statues. He could swear he saw little pieces of meat brought into the anthills. He didn't know what was the worst part of this, the fact that Zaelia was feeding ants with humans, or that she thought it was a great idea. 

When the last ant returned to the anthill, the clay statues were taken back to the city, they were brought directly to the forges. Zaelia had asked the blacksmith to prepare a very large quantity of a mix between copper, silver, and gold and keep it in liquid form. Xzander understood what was happening. Servants poured the cauldrons and used them to fill the clay. The smell of hot bones and burned clothes invaded the place, and everybody there had nausea. Nobody was happy to do this, except her. She was focused and her eyes were sparkling more and more. It was deep, too deep. She was truly happy. 

After some time of waiting in absolute silence, the gold got cooler. The blacksmith came to finish "his work". His hand was trembling, the statues were taken out from their support. The man opened the first clay cocoon and the first Golden statue was born. The man inside would be eternally trapped in a horrific expression. The features were not precise, but it was enough to feel the emotion behind this death. It was enough to bring nightmares to anyone. 

Once the statues were prepared and polished, Zaelia asked for the servant to bring them to the Golden Palace. The statues of the delegation were placed on the top of the stairs. They were in front of the columns, turned in the direction of the city, watching the horizon. Xzander stayed next to the throne, watching the faces of the golden men. He was pale and shocked by what just happened that day. It was slow and well organized, Zaelia had a sense of strategy and always had the habit to plan every detail, it was her great talent since always. This was the reason why he was particularly scared. 

He stepped closer to what was once the ambassador, and he swallowed. After a few hours, he went back home. Xzander passed the door of his quarters, his children were already asleep. His wife was sitting in the middle of the main room, she was waiting for his return. When she saw his face, she stood up immediately, and she was worried. She rushed to him as he seemed almost ready to fall. 

"Xzander?! What happened?!"

Xzander placed a hand on her cheek, her sweet and warm face, but the golden statues were haunting him, and he couldn't see anything else than their terrible expressions.

"It's Zaelia. She... She is not there anymore, I lost her."

She took his hand and helped him to walk to a chair, she kneeled in front of him with love and care, trying to eye-catch him with his low head. His eyes were wide open and she saw true terror in them.