Ragnarok’s lips formed into a sly grin from that question, a slight murmur being made as she floated back and sat upon the air while slowly clacking her fingernails together in front of her.
“Pray you never have to find out.”
Daniel felt an ominous chill run down his spine from hearing that as Ragnarok appeared to be smugly grinning at him as she said nothing further. He was then brought back to reality as Clover and Cindy rushed through Ragnarok’s image, the apparition vanishing from sight while the elf and sand wraith quickly knelt down and held onto Daniel as he nearly fell forward from exhaustion.
“Dan!” Clover exclaimed while grabbing onto his shoulder. “Are you alright? Fucking hell, you had me worried to death! Holy fuck, what the hell was that just now? What did you do? What was that sword you were holding, where did it even come from?”
“Are you okay?” Cindy worried as she held onto his arm. “Please say something, Daniel. You look like you’re hurt. Daniel? Daniel? Please be okay, Daniel, please! Please, I don’t wanna lose you too! I don’t!”
“What the fuck did you just do?” Felucia asked. “The gemini… what happened to them? What did you do to them?”
“Where in Eden did this guy come from?” Sheal wondered.
The ground rumbled violently as lava erupted nearby through a crevice with explosive force, shaking everyone with Clover and Cindy dropping down against Daniel while Felucia and Sheal struggled to keep standing.
“This place is going to blow,” Sheal warned. “We need to leave, now.”
“C’mon, Daniel,” Cindy insisted as she shook him by the shoulder. “We have to go, we have to go right now! Get up! Please get up!”
“Dan? Dan!” Clover cried out from seeing Daniel collapsing in their arms. “Fuck! Dan! Wake up! Dan!”
“You can’t go to sleep now, Daniel!” Cindy whined. “We have to go! We have to go right now! Please don’t go to sleep now!”
“I think he’s out of fire,” Sheal reasoned shaking her head.
“Cindy, give me Pip!” Clover ordered as she quickly sheathed the Hellfire’s Edge into its scabbard on Daniel’s hip. “We need to get Dan out of here before this whole place erupts! You carry him, I’ll try to wake Pip up!”
Cindy pulled Pip out from between her breasts and handed her to Clover, the sand wraith then lifting Daniel up into her arms as he became limp while barely keeping awake.
“C’mon, let’s move it!” Felucia ordered as she waved them on. “Sometime today would be great!”
Clover took off with the girls quickly following after, racing out of the clearing and into the burning woodland as lava blasted up from the open crevice in the clearing with great force. As they ran around the trees and started heading towards the southern end of the forest Clover glanced back to the clearing that was now being engulfed by magma that poured out from the crumbling ground below, a tear forming in her eye as she felt her heart aching at knowing not everyone would be returning to their family that day.
“Squeak… I’m sorry,” she shakily voiced while leading the girls deeper into the flaming forest.
As they raced through the burning village and avoided falling trees and treeside dwellings that dropped into fiery heaps around them, three others watched them go from the shade of a canopy that was now starting to catch fire just as nearly every other tree in the area was already.
“Well, ladies,” Aeon said as she fluttered her wings. “This concludes the show. Did I make it entertaining just as I promised or what? Don’t answer that. Of course I did, I’m just being humble.”
“The gemini,” Kindra marveled. “They’re really dead? Daniel Sorres really destroyed them?”
“He did indeed. I suppose that means your job is done, Flarah. Your charge is now deceased. Granted, you did betray your oath to keep them locked up, but hey, at least they’re dead and gone now, right? That’s all that matters, isn’t it?”
Aeon and Kindra turned to see Flarah keeping her unblinking eyes on the clearing up ahead where the gemini were slain, her tails swaying only slightly behind her as she remained deep in thought with a serious look on her face.
“Flarah?” Aeon playfully asked. “Why so quiet? Aren’t you happy with how this turned out?”
“Anything to say for yourself, big sister?” Kindra snapped. “Daniel Sorres both summoned Ragnarok into this world and cleaned up your mess by getting rid of the gemini. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but Aeon actually helped us while you’ve done nothing but let your mistakes run wild and cause trouble in Eden. Well? Not even going to try and talk your way around this? Have you nothing to say at all? Flarah! Say something!”
“Why?” Flarah carefully questioned. She glanced back to Aeon and saw the chronofly smiling slyly at her. “Why did you have it play out like this, Aeon?”
“Whatever do you mean?” Aeon innocently replied.
“Daniel Sorres and Daemon Warrick were fated to slay the gemini on this night,” Flarah pointed out as she turned to face the Dark Queen. “The gemini were going to be killed, you and I already knew this, you didn’t have to alter anything to make it come true. Yet you did, you changed his fate so he would summon Ragnarok and slay them all by himself.”
“So you do admit that was Ragnarok,” Kindra sneered at her. “You admit it’s the real deal. I was right and you were-”
“Kindra!” Flarah scolded. “Would you give your ego a rest and think carefully for once in your life? If that really is Ragnarok in Daniel Sorres’ possession now then ask yourself why did Aeon help him summon it at all? Why did she want that sword here in the first place if it wasn’t needed to kill the gemini?”
Kindra opened her mouth to shout at her sister, paused for a moment, and then turned to Aeon questionably as the chronofly was casually examining her fingernails with wings gently fluttering behind her. Flarah crossed her arms and watched the Dark Queen closely as she studied the monster’s expression very carefully.
“And need I remind you, little sister, how you’re always so opposed to the idea of others dying senselessly? You always tell me people shouldn’t have to be sacrificed to achieve your goal. Well, Aeon just altered fate and had that ant girl Daniel Sorres cares so deeply for act as a sacrificial lamb to make him summon Ragnarok out of sheer pain for her loss. Doesn’t that go against your code of ethics?”
“A necessary sacrifice, wouldn’t you say?” Aeon mused with a glance to Kindra.
“Was she destined to fall either way?” Kindra carefully asked.
“No, she would have been just fine had it played out the way it was originally set to.”
Kindra held in her growl from hearing that while the ground rumbled again beneath them, the three women paying it no mind as they had other important matters on their minds.
“So tell us, to what end?” Flarah inquired. “I understand why you’re so interested in Daniel Sorres, seeing as how he’s able to summon Ragnarok like he did. And I’ll even concede to the notion of that really being the fabled Ragnarok my little sister has incessantly babbled on and on about. If it destroyed the gemini then I don’t have much to refute it with. But what I’m more interested in right now is why you had him do this at all. Why throw Ragnarok into that human’s hands when you didn’t have to?”
“Seems we both have our juicy little secrets,” Aeon chuckled with a twitch of her eyebrow. “Now you know what it feels like to be itching for more information about something rather peculiar, don’t you?”
“What do you want with Daniel Sorres?” Kindra demanded. “What are you playing here?”
Aeon looked around at the burning forest as it started crumbling into flaming piles of lumber, a loud crackling sound echoing out as a tree began falling towards them and tearing through the fiery branches above. Holding her hand up Aeon snapped her fingers, a loud clack echoing out as everything froze around them. Flarah and Kindra saw the flaming woodland remaining perfectly still and silent while they and Aeon were still able to move freely, the ch
ronofly casually dusting off her dress before smirking at them.
“Little one,” she spoke to Kindra. “Head to Ruhelia. Your precious human is still on track to do something groundbreaking in this world, something that will no longer be taking place here for obvious reasons.”
“Ruhelia?” Kindra repeated. “The centaur homeland that The Sisterhood wiped out? Why should I go there? And who are you calling little one?”
“Just get going. Daniel Sorres will be returning there with his girlfriends. If you leave now you should be able to get there before the event starts. I’m sure you’ll enjoy what you find.”
“What event? What’s going to happen? And why are you telling me this?”
“Run along, little one,” Aeon ordered as she turned her glowing eyes over to Flarah. “I need to have a chat with your sister about a few things. I’m sure she wouldn’t mind a little privacy with our discussion either, right, Flarah?”
“I think that’s a splendid idea, Aeon,” Flarah agreed with a slight smile. “We have so much to catch up on with one another.”
“Whoa, whoa, hold on!” Kindra called out. “What are either of you talking about? And don’t treat me like a little child you have to tiptoe around to have your stupid discussions with!”
“Do what she says, little sister,” Flarah insisted while keeping her eyes on Aeon. “I believe I know what she’s alluding to, and trust me, you won’t want to miss what your human does next.”
“What’s that supposed to mean? What’s going to happen to Daniel Sorres now?”
“Go and see,” Aeon and Flarah ordered, with Kindra looking between the two with growing anxiety and rustling tails. The younger kitsune looked off towards where Daniel was taken by his group then back to her sister and the Dark Queen who remained just as silent as the frozen world around them.
“If nothing happens with Daniel Sorres then I’m going to be fucking pissed at both of you,” Kindra warned. Flarah merely waved her away, with her sister growling in frustration before she started to run off. Taking a few steps she quickly stopped and looked back at the two women who merely glanced over to her while waiting for her to leave.
“One question first,” she sternly demanded.
“Time will resume for you after you leave the forest,” Aeon droned with a roll of her eyes.
“That wasn’t going to be my question!”
“Yes it was, I already knew what you were going to say before you said it.”
“That’s not… ARGHH! Fine! Then here’s another. Tell me the truth, was there any way of having Daniel Sorres summon Ragnarok without anyone needing to die in the process?”
“As far as I could see into his future, it wouldn’t have happened otherwise,” Aeon replied with a shrug. “Does that make you feel better about what happened?”
“I wish it did,” Kindra said looking down and away. “Still, I don’t believe you. There had to be another way.”
“Keep telling yourself that if it makes you feel better,” Aeon carelessly remarked.
Kindra growled at her before taking off into the silent woodland, running quickly through cinders and ashes that were still in the air while questioning how she felt about the method used to bring Ragnarok into the world. After she left the area and the rustling sounds in her wake faded, Aeon and Flarah continued to stare each other down in silence as they planned on getting answers for their pressing questions. Glancing around at the fiery forest they stood in the two women showed slick smiles as they donned their best poker faces for their upcoming talk, with Aeon then fluttering away while Flarah nimbly trotted behind her as they left to more stable ground.
*****
South of Green Haven the elves who fled from The Sisterhood’s regime were gathered together in hopes that a strange group of travelers who promised to help free them would make good on their word, and preferably within the next five minutes as the sight of their forest being consumed by fire with lava sprouting high above the flaming trees all throughout their once peaceful home was rather terrifying to behold.
“Oh fuck!” an elven woman cried out as she held her daughter close. “Our home, it’s all gone! Everything, everything has been taken away!”
“The forest is going to erupt! Those fucking Sisterhood assfaces doomed our home by destroying the Aquarius Gateway and pissing off the gods!”
“The ground is shaking even from here, this whole place is going to blow! We need to get out of here!”
“We’re all going to die!”
“What are we waiting for?” an elf shouted as she shook a ranger by the collar. “Why are we just standing here in the middle of an open field?”
“The witch told us too, that’s why!” the ranger shouted back. “She’s the one who’s going to cast a spell to save us, remember?”
“Where did that witch go anyway?” another asked looking around quickly. “Why aren’t we being moved away from this place yet? We can’t stay here, The Sisterhood is going to come find us!”
“Not to mention there’s a fucking inferno going off right next to us!” an elven child exclaimed, pointing to the large field of tall grass next to the herd of frightened elves that was currently burning bright with wild flowing flames.
“I thought the witch went into that field a moment ago,” an elf worried.
“She did, I know she did. I saw her.”
“Oh fuck, she’s fucking dead! There’s no way she’s alive in there!”
“What do we do now?”
“We have to run!”
“The Sisterhood is going to catch us!”
“Not if Eden doesn’t blow us sky-high first! We’re all fucked!”
“Look!” a ranger called out, with the elves slowly quieting down as they saw the weeds and vines that were strewn about in a casting diagram on the ground below them starting to glow with a white light. Sparkling radiances began creeping along the dirt and filling the large spellbase that the elves were gathered on top of, all of them staring in awe at the glowing plants while another tremor rolled by.
“What’s happening? Why is it doing that?”
“It’s some sort of magic. This spellbase is active!”
“But how? The witch was incinerated in that field. Who’s doing this?”
“I think that witch is!” an elf marveled, herself and others noticing a mesh of glowing roots connecting to the casting base and leading into the burning field next to them where the plants were lit aflame yet did not wither or die.
“But how?” an elf breathed out. “How is she doing this? No witch could survive in there.”
“Who the fuck are these people?” another elf cried out in disbelief. “A human that wanted to fight off The Sisterhood and a witch who doesn’t burn? Where in Eden did they come from?”
Inside the raging firestorm Alyssa was down on her knees with her staff held up in front of her on the ground, the witch holding onto the relic tightly as it had smoke billowing out from the eyeholes of the ram ornament while glowing with an orange hue. The flames swirled around her like flowing water, her hat managing to remain on her head while her skirt fluttered wildly around her hips to reveal her black panties that she typically used only when Daniel would be around to see them. Her eyes were shut tight in her concentration, her blue focuser gemstone glowing brightly like a star, and her grip on her staff was firm as she focused with all her might to channel the violent magic coursing through her body into her spell.
‘Focus, Alyssa. Focus. You have to control it this time, you have to control your power. Those elves are counting on you. Daniel is counting on you. Oh my god, I feel like I’m going to burst! The fires… they’re so heavy! Keep it together, girl! If you even twitch funny you could cast these flames onto those people all at once! You have to control it!’
Standing on the north side of the gathering an elven ranger watched as many of her sisters were seen on a faraway knoll to the east while firing their arrows wildly at what was easily assumed to be approaching monsters belong
ing to The Sisterhood. Turning her sights to the north she saw several groups of elves sprinting out of the burning forest towards them, some carrying small children while others had wounded elves on their backs.
“The rescue parties are returning!” an elven ranger called out.
“The Sisterhood is going to break through the eastern flank! There’s too many!”
“Hey, the ground’s vibrating here! The witch’s spell, I think it’s about to do something!”
“Everyone!” an elven captain shouted into the air. “Pull back now! Get inside the casting circle! We’re leaving right now!”
The archers on the eastern hill fired a few more shots and sharp obscenities before racing back towards their people. Those that guided and carried their kin from the forest ran as fast as they could to get inside the ring while everyone else quickly gathered inside the casting circle as it was glowing brightly with wavering pulses of golden light going through its plants. Every elf rushed into the ring with their rangers keeping close to the outside edges who remained on guard, all except for the elven captain who stayed outside the ring with her bow drawn and eye on the burning field.
“Captain! Get inside, quick! You’ll be left behind if you don’t!”
“I’m staying,” she called back with a smirk. “Someone has to make sure that witch makes it to safety for her efforts. I owe her that much.”
“But you’ll be trapped here with those fucking savages!”
“Either I pay back our new friends for helping us, or I go down taking as many of those bitches with me as I can. At the very least I want to know who exactly these people are and where they came from before I die. The rest of you, keep our people safe! That’s an order! Hopefully we’ll meet again soon.”
The casting circle flashed with a bright light as the ground started trembling, golden radiances flowing through the vines and weeds while sliding across the dirt in wild patterns as a glowing bloom of energy formed below the elven people.
“Witch!” the captain called out. “They’re coming, The Sisterhood is almost here! Everyone’s ready, so whatever you’re going to do, do it now!”
Chronicles of Eden - Act XII Page 40