by James Hunt
"Not. Fucking. Happening." The Mischievous growled violently angry. She curled forward, took a deep breath, and let the violet glow emanating from her wings collect into her hands. Her wings dissolved into twinkling dust motes in the air and also collected into her palms. At that moment her power had coalesced and she released it into the air with in a violent burst. Invisible threads woven all about the room ignited instantaneously all around her. They became visible as they burned scarlet red, burned down their length to a node where they ended at, consumed it, and ignited the other strands attached. A great chain reaction rapidly spread through the hall, with it came an inhuman scream that shook the underground walls and echoed down the length of the catacombs as it spread rapidly down the tunnels. In one terrible flash it was all over.
Burning embers drifted through the air. The Mischievous's thoughts were her own, and a great blessed silence filled the air. Rad fell forward to the ground in relief.
"Such silence," he sighed in admiration and wonderment. "Finally, such beautiful silence."
The Mischievous listened. She wanted to speak to him, to get more answers, but she could feel what had happened. Somehow she knew the Mother was gone. Gone for good and she was finally free. She looked down at Rad. He too, was somehow that monster's prisoner, and this was just as much his liberation as her. She knelt beside him.
"Elves don't have wings." she said matter of factly. "Zecairin elves don't have wings."
"All daughters of Titania have wings," Rad corrected her, growing short of breath. "Your people have always had them. But the conditions required to embrace them are a bit of a taboo in your culture."
"Which is?"
"To reveal your true self. To yourself, and to someone you trust. It is the most intimate expression your people are capable - showing your wings, and feeling exposed." Rad explained. "It also means you are the original, and not one of Helrith's copies."
The Mischievous hid her face in embarrassment. It was true that she had, in the short time they spoke, grown a certain fond curiosity for this human - she wanted to believe his heroism and intentions, they were just too romantic not to hope for. But it wasn't love. Yet it was enough to awaken this birthright she apparently had had all this time. She never felt so exposed in her life before.
"We need to get to the surface," Rad groaned in pain and carefully sat himself up. The Mischievous lent him a hand and together they got him to his feet. He guided them towards the tunnel that led to the stairs. The archway that marked its entrance started to glow a pearly white.
Niyana could clearly be seen in the silhouette. Her opalescent wings beating the air around her, and bathed the area in its white glow. She approached slowly and walked past the other male elf in white leather who stood in exasperation and stammered in embarrassed bewilderment at her display. She offered a hand to The Mischievous with a warm welcoming smile.
"Come," Niyana breathed emotionally, caught in the grip of sorrow, joy and anger. "Follow us, Sister."
* * * *
The elves were antsy. The closer the footsteps came the more of them stood up eager to see who approached. They had not been gone long, but it was enough for the battle weary elves to feel the exhaustion of the day settle into their bones. Not many could still stand, but they could look towards the stairway. Kalek had stood guard, his weapons casually hanging at his sides, but he didn't move. It wasn't until the second and third set of footsteps could be heard that he sheathed his swords.
Niyana emerged first, and greated him with her hand on his shoulder. Then The Skyrider emerged who wandered away to some separate section of the chapel to sit and have a stoic think. The Mischievous emerged, carrying a weak Rad in her arms.
"Fathers... quarters..." he whispered weakly. She knew where to take him, and did so. Leaving the stunned elves alone. Niyana watched them go out the front door and turned to face her people.
"Its done. The devil is truly dead." She proclaimed without pride or joy. "One of us still lingers by a thread we cannot mend." She added sadly, nodding in Rad's direction.
Kalek came to stand beside her then. She met his gaze and wanted to speak but couldn't find the words. He put a hand on her shoulder.
"My queen, if this be his nightfall, then share his last moments." he said reassuringly. "We owe him" Simple. Kalek was refreshingly uncomplicated at times, and she loved that. But he had enough honor to not think it beneath an Lunarin Queen to sit watch as a human died. Niyana looked to the faces around the room, and briefly met their looks before she turned to follow The Mischievous.
She laid him down on the floor mattress. It seemed fitting for Rad to assume the mantle of The Father and also these luxuriously spacious and recently vacated quarters. His breath came in wheezes, and she could feel him loosing the battle against his wounds. The Mother's power apparently had sustained him when nature could not, and now that she was gone, nature was taking its due. His eyes opened with desperately retained consciously, and they looked at The Mischievous.
"Scrolls..." he pointed to the wall of shelves of rolled up parchment. "Huanguard secrets. Hide them." he instructed. "burn them if I die. I'll teach them to you if I don't." Rad closed his eyes and exhaled deeply, and grew silent and still.
Niyana entered the room reverently. Gently she sat beside the man's sleeping body opposite The Mischievous. She watched, fixated and waiting, as his chest rose and fell ever so slightly. She knelt down, listened to his breath, and placed a caring hand on his forehead as she sat back up.
"He rescued me from hell." Niyana said quietly.
"He does that." The Mischievous said with mirth that melted into grief. "Sister,.." she added delicately. Trying out the new word as it played on her tongue. It was a truth. The bond they both shared with this man, and the circumstances that formed it made them sisters of a sort. "Zeks and Elths working together? I want to hear all about that." She looked down at Rad's unconscious face, searching it for a sign, before pulling the blankets at the foot of the bed up and over the both of them. She settled down to lay beside him, watching him as he slumbered.
Niyana looked around the room but found it unaccommodating to what she was searching for. She took off her leather vest, dirtied with blood, sweat, and soot, rolled it into a wad and laid her head down upon it. She wouldn't sleep, she couldn't sleep, she would be here for him, but there was nothing else to do but rest and watch, and wait.
* * * * *
"Kalek," The Skyrider said quietly, announcing his approach to the door sentry. Kalek didn't move from his post, or make any motion to show he heard the man as he continued peering through the crack between the doors, but he did incline his head to listen.
"Harpies," Kalek whispered. "lots of them. They won't touch some of the humans. We'll have to burn those. I suspect it is because of the demon taint."
"I wish to speak with Princess Niyana." The blond haired elf with elegant features said in a brusk and inelegant tone. He had switched to a less eloquent dialect of Lunarin in an attempt to warm up to the Captain.
"Shhh," Kalek motioned him silent. The chapel hall was quiet but filled with the sounds of sleeping elves. The moon came out from behind a cloud at that moment, and he could see through the crack alongside Kalek as a winged creature in the courtyard not far from them feasted on a corpse. It turned his stomach and he looked away. "I find myself oddly at peace with it, now that I know why." Kalek added quietly. "It prevents their souls from becoming Wraiths." he added in a curious tone. "How many of those abominations are haunting these woods today because we hunted their kind to near extinction?"
"Captain," The Skyrider said again, this time with less agitation. "My squadron will return soon. The Human's trick would only keep them scattered and disorientated for a few hours, and they will attack once regrouped. Our mission supersedes my safety as commander."
"My mother and my comrades died on that hill." Kalek said coldly. "Completing your mission for you..."
"Agreed." The Skyrider said in earnest. "And the honors are your
s. Therefore, it is my wish to keep their sacrifice from being in vane by prevents more loss of elvish life."
"Elvish? Not Lunarin?" Kalek turned to look at the Sky Rider, his black eyes glistened with skeptical curiosity. The nuance in the white elf's choice of words had not been missed.
"Its this sword. Dekarsil," The Sky Rider explained, lifting the sword. "It echos the thoughts and experiences of its former masters, I have spoken to Niyana and shared her plight without having been a part of it. I am convinced. I wish to help you as I can. Please allow that."
"Go," Kalek said decisively and nodded towards the door. "Stay to the side of the building, to your right, don't disturb the Harpies." Kalek's agreeableness gave the Sky Rider pause. Kalek caught it. "My concern is not with what is out there, but in keeping what is in here safe. If you think to flee, you won't get far past them." He nodded to the silhouette of a winged man tearing the flesh from detached leg. "If you think to assassinate the Princess, she is more than a match for you, and she has an ally in that room. When they returned, Rad was carried out by the Zek woman, not Niyana. As much as she cares for that human, Niyana would have gladly taken up the task, and only allowed the Zek to do it if she was a proven sister to her for their shared love of that human." Kalek explained.
"You are very observant," the Sky Rider admitted. "Are you not her betrothed?" he added scornfully. Kalek arched a single black eyebrow and sized the man up again. "Do you intend to allow her to bed-" his statement was cut off by the swish of Kalek's short steel sword as it came to rest in the air before the Skyrider's face.
"You presumed that I control her. You presumed that I am offended at her sharing her body intimately with another man that has earned such a privilege. That is her right, and I have no place deciding its execution." Kalek spun the weapon around in the air and slid it silently back into its sheath at his thigh. "I am now the last heir of my family, house Vereathorne. We are as old as yours, Lord Kanear of House Ardivestia. Yes, I know who you are. But I do not share your devotion to pure bloodlines. If I am to be the last, I will live with distinction and nobility. I will not disgrace myself merely to preserve the purity of my heirs, or to win status as Queen's prince consort, should Niyana ever be called to serve."
"Should Niyana sit on the throne, would you step aside for the good of the nation, and let a better match be made? Would you enforce our laws and customs by denying that human?"
"That is not my decision to make, but I will serve Lunar and the Princess should they both desire me,"
"Is your honor a mercenary?"
Kalek had grown tired of this discussion. Lord Kanear's attitude was entirely predictable, his arguments heard a million times before. Kalek had known a dozen young lords like him in the Citadel. Each one was just another puppet of their parents.
"We should have made peace with the Harpies long ago," he muttered in dark humor. Completely ignoring the debate. "Princess Niyana has built relationships with two of our enemies. Do you think the great houses would ever let her rule? That is to say, should she wish to return to Lunar?
"You see my point."
"You aren't seeing mine." Kalek sighed, and changed the subject. "I assume you'll ask her to live in exile?"
"For the good of Lunar, Niyana must not return." Lord Kanear said with certainty.
"I do not control her." Kalek sighed. "But I will advise her against a civil war."
"I do not serve His Highness. I serve Lunar." Lord Kanear added as he slowly and quietly pushed the oak door open. "I will always serve Lunar... regardless of who rules." He disappeared out into the night air.
A gentle knock roused her from her brief nap, and Niyana lifted her head.
"Princess Niyana?" The Skyrider's voice came from the other side of the door.
"Enter," she grumbled loud enough to be heard and sat upright. It took her a moment to clear the fog from her mind and realize where she was and what had happened. Alarmed, she put a hand over Rad's chest... he was still breathing.
Black skinned fingers moved out from under the blanket over him and gripped hers. They were gentle, and stern at the same time. The Mischievous opened one eye to look at her from her comfortable position nestled in the crook of Rad's good arm. Niyana squeezed her hand reassuringly before pulling away and sitting upright as Lord Kanear of the Skyriders entered the room.
He sat on the ground before Niyana, placed Dekarsil at her feet, and bowed his head to the floor.
"Princess Niyana, I must leave thee now." He said in his formal Lunarin dialect. "To prevent more death, I will return to my squadron. Our mission here has been completed by your knights. His Grace commanded the Huanguard destroyed. It is thus. He ordered Rad the Lion dead. He will soon be thus. Our of respect for you, I will not linger to confirm his passing. Let his final moments be at peace." Niyana listened and made no comment. She was still trying to figure out how a captive was walking about addressing her. "My lady, your grace. Please do not return to Lunar. It would cause a civil war. Please stay here with your knights, and live in exile."
Silence filled the room. Niyana did not respond, and the Skyrider would not lift his head.
For Gayne. The thought surged into her like an exploding volcano. A righteous fury consumed her and she dug her nails into her thighs, but the sharp pain did not steady her any. How dare this man presume to ask her to live out in exile? How dare he ask her to abandon her vengeance for Gayne, for her honor guard that fell in Zecair, and for all the other Lunarin lives that her brother murdered out of religious fervor?
"So be it." She found herself saying. Her shoulders sagged, her ears drooped, and she was defeated. He had defeated her with the words 'civil war'. It wouldn't be just her life, or the lives of her soldiers at risk, but many, many more Lunar innocents would be caught in the middle should she challenge King Lethonar to the throne.
"I will not return to Lunar," she choked out as her emotions fought against her soldier's discipline. "Unless it is requested by the headss of the great houses."
The Sky Rider backed away, bowed his head deeper once more before lifting it, and promptly left the room in a hurry. Then he was gone, and the room was silent.
Niyana collapsed back down onto the dirty makeshift pillow she had been using. Too exhausted to cry. Too exhausted to scream. Too exhausted to do anything but stare at the wooden beams above their heads.
"You're still going to invade them, aren't you?" The Mischievous said softly after it seemed Niyana's shock and fury had ebbed away some. Niyana scowled at her words, she wanted to call the girl stupid for not hearing what she had just said. But then she heard her own words play back in her head, somehow a part of her said the words in such a way as to give her an honorable way back home.
"Not invade, no. "Niyana sighed, tiredly. "But should some terrible tragedy happen, I might return, if they ask nicely."
*****
Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed this, check out the following:
Harem Lord
Game Changer
The Firebrand
The Initiation
The Ritual