by Mia Archer
They slipped through the village border easily enough, and to her relief she saw that people were out in the streets. No one gave them a second look as they slipped into the crowds. She turned to Tiafa and gave her hand a squeeze.
Tiafa smiled. She looked down as well. Down to where there would be glowing lines on Sarai’s arms, but when she looked down herself the lines were so far gone that no one was going to see them in the glow of torchlight bouncing off the walls.
The worry over getting discovered might be over, but it didn’t change the new worry over what was happening in the village. That glowing light was still swirling in the air over the city, and there was also something new. Something that hadn’t been seen in Choikal since the night the city burned to the ground.
The fitful glow of a fire in the distance. Sure it was only a fire in that one guard tower and not the entire city going up in a conflagration, but it was still enough to worry the people around them.
They whispered. Looked over their shoulders to the rise in the distance. To the city. Sarai could see in their eyes that they were reliving that fateful night from so long ago. She could see the terror that was always there when they talked about that night.
It was enough to make her shiver, and she knew that what was happening in the city had nothing to do with the Dark Lady.
Even though the name of the Dark Lady was on everyone’s lips.
They followed the crowd until they reached the central village square. The mayor stood on the platform that’d been put up for the Choice wiping sweat from his balding head. Sweat that reflected the light of a great bonfire that had been set up behind him and the torches of villagers standing before him.
“I don’t like this,” Sarai said.
“Me either,” Tiafa said.
“Please!” the mayor said. “Please if you would all calm down for a moment.”
That was good for a roar from the crowd. Clearly they weren’t in a mood to calm down.
“We won’t calm down!” someone shouted from the crowd.
“They’re doing it again!”
“The witches and the mages will come for us! They’re going to burn us this time!”
That confused Sarai until she remembered that some of the oldsters still believed the mages from the witch school had intentionally set fire to Choikal and then blamed it on the Dark Lady as an excuse to go to war.
Which, to Sarai, was proof that there was every sort of crazy out there willing to spout their craziness. Not that many listened to that brand of craziness, but that didn’t stop them from trying to foist their unique brand of crazy on the world.
“We don’t know if the Academy had anything to do with this!” the mayor said. “If you would simply wait then we can have word from them and I’m sure they will explain everything to our satisfaction.”
“Burned ruins we’re waiting for them to explain!” someone else shouted.
“Time to call the Breakers! Show them their kind isn’t welcome in this village! We won’t have with their kind!”
There was more murmuring and shouting from the crowd. Sarai stood there watching them, but eventually she realized that nothing terribly productive was actually happening.
The mayor would tell the people that the Academy would have an explanation for what had happened this night, and then the people would shout at him that he needed to do something.
She did shiver every time someone mentioned calling in the Breakers. Those were the last thing they needed in their village. Almost better the Dark Lady herself would come to grace them with a personal visit than those.
Especially given the changes that’d come over her this evening.
“We’re not going to learn anything here tonight,” Sarai said.
“I think you’re right,” Tiafa murmured, low enough to not be heard by anyone else.
“Let’s head home. I don’t think anyone knows,” Sarai said.
She was intentionally vague because the last thing she wanted was for someone to hear her mention anything they’d done tonight and put together their sneaking out with the strangeness over the city.
Tiafa smiled. “Good idea.”
20
Evening’s End
They reached Tiafa’s house first. Sarai felt odd. They’d done this so many times before, but usually it was Tiafa walking Sarai to her door.
Lots of things had changed this night. Not the least of which was that Sarai seemed to be the one taking everything in stride while Tiafa was having difficulty adjusting.
“This night was interesting,” Tiafa said.
“Yes, it was,” Sarai said.
She turned to look out across the village. More particularly to the glow in the distance. The fire seemed to have spread, though she couldn’t tell if that was because it was spreading naturally or if it was a result of the mages out there still throwing their spells around because they thought they were under attack.
Though considering how they’d attacked without stopping to ask questions first, Sarai couldn’t help but feel some small measure of satisfaction that the mages might be caught in a firestorm of their own making.
She tried not to think about the image of a raven haired woman that flashed through her mind along with that thought.
“Whatever happens after this,” Tiafa said. “I want you to know this is a night I’m going to remember for the rest of my life.”
Sarai forced herself to smile. That came very close to the thought that they might not have much of a “rest of their life” if they got poor results in the Choice.
“Me too,” she said, leaning forward and kissing Tiafa. She figured if there was a possibility they could both be dead in a few months then she was going to enjoy the time she had left.
Tiafa blushed. She opened her mouth and it seemed like she was on the verge of saying more. Hope blossomed within Sarai. The hope that perhaps they might have a little more fun along the same lines as what they’d done out there in that city.
But no. Tiafa smiled one more time then opened her door. All the lights were on, but Sarai didn’t see Tiafa’s parents around. Which had her wondering, again, whether or not she should take advantage of that.
But no. There was always the worry that her parents might come back. There was no way to be sure that the villagers would spend the entire night griping at the mayor and trying to get him to bring in the Breakers.
She suppressed another shiver, and by the time the shiver was over Tiafa had closed the door and any opportunity that might’ve been there was gone.
Sarai sighed. She thought perhaps it was better this way. They had what had happened at the tower, after all. That was a perfect moment, and in some ways she was happy they were leaving it at that perfect moment.
Though there was that fire that burned inside her. A fire that had her wanting to do so much more. She looked at the abandoned street all around her.
There were lights on all around, but she figured most everyone was going to be down at the town square trying to figure out what to do about this sudden new disaster brewing in Choikal. Considering the terror she’d seen in villager’s eyes when they talked about what had happened at Choikal she thought it was a wonder they weren’t all running in terror.
Sarai came to a decision. She turned around. Back to Tiafa’s house which was stuck between so many other houses in a long row. She imagined what it would’ve been like to be in rows of houses like this in Choikal so many years ago. Watching the fires moving from house to house because there was nothing to stop it, until eventually the whole thing became a firestorm that couldn’t be stopped.
No magic needed for that horror. Nature would do all the work from a certain point on. Though the fact that those fires were fueled by a dark fire hadn’t helped.
There was a firestorm raging inside her this night. A fire in the pit of her stomach that needed to be satisfied.
So she took a step towards Tiafa’s house. She barely noticed the glowing mist that surrounded her.
The hands that reached out of that mist to provide a solid foundation as she stepped up to her friend’s window.
There’d been times when she simply stood in the street staring up at Tiafa’s window. Usually before they were to meet one another. Times when she’d wondered what it would be like to be in that room with her friend.
Sure they’d had sleepovers, tortured affairs that reminded her of what she couldn’t have, but it was all different tonight. They only had a little time before the Choice, and she felt like it was a waste of everything that’d happened tonight if she gave up.
She stood at the window for a moment, supported by nothing but the magic and the spirits of the long dead and the not-so-long dead. At least she assumed that’s what was happening here.
She knew she had to be fast. It wouldn’t be long before someone came along. She couldn’t stand here all night and watch her friend, though as she looked in the window she felt a blush.
Tiafa was getting out of her dress. Tiafa had seen Sarai wearing practically nothing earlier in the tower, but the reverse hadn’t been true. Sarai’s hand paused, gathered in a fist, on the edge of rapping against the window.
She wasn’t sure how Tiafa would take it, but she knew she had to do this. She’d hidden from this for too long. It was time for her to take something she wanted in life. Especially when there was a worry that life might not last all that much longer.
She tapped against the window. At first Tiafa didn’t seem to recognize that there was someone at her window. Why would she expect someone to be tapping at a window on the second floor? Or maybe she thought it was a bird and ignored it.
Sarai could see the realization slowly dawning on Tiafa’s face though. The knowledge that there shouldn’t be a bird tapping on her window at this time of night. She turned slowly and jumped when she saw Sarai standing at her window.
Tiafa rushed over and threw the window open. Her eyes were wide as she looked up and down the street, no doubt thinking the same thing Sarai had been thinking when she made sure the coast was clear.
Tonight was not a good night to be seen wielding magic.
Tiafa’s eyes moved down to what was holding Sarai up, and if anything she seemed more terrified. Sarai felt just as nervous floating in the air bathed in the green glow reflecting on Tiafa’s house. When she looked down those lines were back and glowing with new power.
Idly Sarai wondered if that had something to do with how aroused she was thinking of Tiafa. She’d never heard of magic that operated on principles of lust like that before, but the amount of knowledge she didn’t have about how magic worked could fill libraries.
“What are you doing up here?” Tiafa said. “If they see you in the mood they’re in tonight they’ll kill you!”
“Maybe,” Sarai said, but she felt the beginnings of something new deep inside her. The sure knowledge that there wasn’t anyone in this village, maybe not even the Breakers, that could harm her. “Then again maybe not. That’s not important.”
“What could possibly make this not important?” Tiafa asked. “You need to go.”
“No, I need you,” Sarai said, her voice ragged as the words left her lips.
Tiafa blinked. Then smiled.
“That’s why you came back?”
“Of course,” Sarai said. “I need you. More than I’ve ever needed anything.”
Tiafa looked up and down the street one final time. No doubt making certain there wasn’t anyone watching who might call the authorities or something, which would have put a cramp on their plans for the evening.
“Come in,” she said, that smile never leaving her face.
Sarai grinned right back at her. She’d expected nothing less, but there’d been some doubt. She stepped into Tiafa’s room, fully intending to enjoy every moment of one of the last two nights she had before her life changed forever.
Though when she thought about it her life had already changed forever. Now it was a matter of whether or not she was going to let those other changes happen.
She wrapped her arms around Tiafa and they fell together on her friend’s bed, and this time it was nothing like those chaste nights of pure torture they’d spent together.
21
Dark Lady
Jaska looked out on her dark domain and sighed. The problem with her dark domain was it wasn’t nearly as large now as it had been just a few years ago, and that was a problem.
Spreading evil throughout the world via her unholy minions was supposed to be a growth industry, and with the way the free nations of the world had banded together against her sending never ending numbers of their young and best to be killed in the grindstone that was the border between the dead and the living it simply wasn’t growing as it had.
Jaska smiled. Basically everything had been going to plan ever since that night when she burned Choikal to the ground and started this whole interminable war that was slowly destroying the world as everyone knew it.
“You seem very happy for someone who just lost a mile of territory along the front lines,” Uinae said.
“Well of course I would,” Jaska lied, as always instinctively hiding her irritation at her continued losses. “How many times do I have to explain the plan to you before you understand it?”
There were times when Jaska suspected her minion forced her to repeat the plan over and over again simply because she liked to frustrate her mistress, but most of the time she was willing to admit to herself that yes, her assistant and second in command truly was that dense.
“I know your explanation. It’s just that I still don’t see how losing territory constantly is a win for you,” Uinae said.
Explanation? Rationalization was more like it.
“Of course you wouldn’t,” Jaska said. “You’re an idiot. Every step we give up is a step that is scorched and destroyed and twisted with my dark magic. Even if they managed to take it all back from me tomorrow there isn’t a chance they would be able to use it for anything productive for generations.”
That was a positive, but she’d much rather her forces were expanding her sphere of influence, death, and destruction rather than thoroughly rescorching earth that’d already been well and truly scorched the first time they crossed it.
“Right,” Uinae said. “Doesn’t that mean you can’t use it either?”
“Well yes,” Jaska said. “But we’re the bad guys, remember? We don’t have to worry about using the land for farming and things like that. All we have to do is keep killing their young so we can build an army of the undead and unleash it on them when they think they’re victorious.”
“But what about the child?” Uinae asked.
Jaska squeezed her eyes shut and resisted the urge to destroy Uinae where she stood. Reducing the woman to ashes would be so easy, but as always she refrained.
Mostly she refrained from destroying her minion out of habit these days. She hadn’t seriously considered killing Uinae in nearly a decade, though she came close this time.
“I don’t think that child is ever going to follow through on her threat,” Jaska said. “I know you keep bringing her up because it’s the only way you ever win an argument, but…”
Jaska paused. She sensed something in the distance. The far distance. Around the curve of the planet so she shouldn’t be able to sense it, but of course geography and the curve of the planet was hardly a limit in detecting magic that powerful.
“Huh,” she said. “It would appear tonight might be the night you’re proved right Uinae.”
A shiver ran down her spine at that. So many years of waiting. So many years of wondering if this would be the day. So many years of torture she hadn’t anticipated when she first loosed her little joke on the world.
It was almost a disappointment that the moment had finally come. Almost, but she had work to do.
Jaska closed her eyes. Thought of where she wanted to be. She heard Uinae asking something about what was wrong, but pushed that thought out of her mind as she felt herself shift.
In an instant she stood on a grassy field with a small village to one side and the burnt out ruins of Choikal in front of her. Though those ruins looked more like they had the last time Jaska had visited this place in the flesh.
Which is to say they were on fire. She watched fireballs fly through the air and lightning called down from the skies. And above it all there was a glowing swirling maelstrom of magical energy that seemed to be begging to be released, but it hung there.
Jaska delicately felt at that swirling energy, and cried out in surprise as she was almost pulled into it and torn to pieces by the sheer power on display in there. She pulled herself away.
She’d seen a maelstrom of magical energy like that once before. On the night when she summoned the power to burn Choikal. Only this was more powerful than anything she’d used to burn Choikal by an order of magnitude, and someone else had somehow summoned the magic to themselves.
Jaska felt something she hadn’t felt in a good long time. Since she first learned about the prophecy that would result in her eventual defeat.
Unease. A twisting in her stomach. The sure knowledge that the prophecy and fate might catch up with her after all. Soon, the child would just be reaching her eighteenth birthday, but at least she could say it had been a good run.
And besides. If she didn’t miss her guess those fireballs flying through the sky and lightnings being called down meant those imbeciles from the Academy were trying their best to fight off something that wasn’t even there.
Because she felt something off in the distance, but it wasn’t coming from that maelstrom. It was a magical counterpoint, almost as powerful as the potential magical energy on display over the city, and it was pulsing from inside that village.
Jaska turned. To anyone else it would look like a normal village that had been roused by the strange things going on in the ruined city next door, but to her she could see the telltale signs of a hell of a lot of magic being thrown around.