Queen Killer

by M. H. Johnson

  Arcadian Magic Affinities – The Paths of Herbam and Blood are open to you.

  Note. Most Arcadian Powers cost 10 Mana to cast. Each additional power or modifier rank added increases cost by 10. Entire cost is decreased by 10% for every level of Faerie Magic skill you have.

  Powers of Forest and Blood

  Bloodlink Rank 1 – Any weapon marked with your blood reduces opponent armor by 1 category. You are instantly healed for 20% of the damage inflicted.

  Greenbinding Rank 1 - All foliage within a ten-foot diameter will instantly tangle your foes! If Rigidity is in effect, thorns and leaves will cut into captive’s flesh! Faerie Magic and the right seeds will allow you to manipulate this spell into a tiny grove with knotted foliage overhead. Can also be synergized with Bloodlink to form Blood Vines at will, which heal you for a portion of the damage your vines inflict!

  Arcadian Power Modifiers

  Synergized Link (Meta Modifier) You have linked the paths of Herbam and Blood. Congratulations! Spells and Spell enhancements synergizing both disciplines are now open to you! Warped spells heretofore unknown are open to you!

  Rigidity Rank 1. – Now all your Faerie magic can have the tensile strength, sharpness, and rigidity of hammered bronze, if you wish it.

  Domain Rank 1. – Each Rank will double the original area of effect of your Faerie magic!

  Symbiote Powers

  Infravision – See in the dark better than the most sophisticated infrared optics!

  Greater Regeneration Rank 1 – You heal 1 Health point per second and 1 Wound Tier every 10 seconds. Once your Health is at full, all injuries are healed!

  Hunter's Sense – This active Wildcard power will allow you to sense things as intently as the deadliest of predators! Your sense of smell is as keen as any hound, your eyes are as sharp as a hawk’s, your ears as attuned to frequencies as a bat! Cost to maintain: 10 mana per minute. (This is well below your Mana recovery of 0.9 mana per second.)

  Synergistic skill bonus! Find Weakness skill check is boosted by +2 when Hunter's Sense is active, +4 if Hunter’s Sense is further incorporated with Magesight, Infravision, and/or Psi-Sense.

  Durability Rank 1 – You absorb 20 points of damage and 1 Wound Tier from most attacks. Note. Humanity kept intact. Due to the limitations of human looking and feeling skin, thrusts or cuts from sharpened blades of 1040 or harder steel alloy will penetrate 1/2 of Durability resistances. (Full damage resistance still applies if strike does not puncture externally worn armor.)

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  19

  John grimaced at the loud banging on the door of his mind.

  “Sorry to bug you John, but your bro’s kinda in a tight one. If you wouldn’t mind doing me a major solid—shit, John, they’re getting closer. If you’re there, let me in!”

  John groaned, rubbing his head, for a split second wondering if he had drunk too much with his best friend during their beer and pizza nights before reality suddenly came crashing back to him.

  He swallowed his scratchy throat, blinking about in confusion. The last thing he recalled was collapsing in a storm of golden light after facing down an abomination that had come damn close to killing him.

  For all that Lilith had been a kid just living her life, same as he, only a handful of years ago.

  Both of them guinea pigs in experiments that would have had HHS crying out for blood, if their entire government, hell, their entire world, hadn’t already been taken over by the very race of Psionicists responsible for so much horror now infecting their world.

  Yet here he was at his best friend’s house, his mind suddenly flooding with a thousand memories of times they had hung out together. Whether training their asses off or enjoying good times, they had been almost inseparable whenever school let out.

  He shook his head. Because it was all a lie, of course.

  He had never lived that life, had never bonded with his best friend over a game of hoops, never hooted with victory after finally scoring a point with sabers after getting his ass handed to him all day. He had never ridden top down in the convertible along with Mitch and his girlfriend, a beloved third wheel, the three of them just enjoying a beautiful sunset drive together.

  He had all the memories, of course. Perhaps far more memories than any one 17-year-old should have.

  More and more, he had the sneaking suspicion he was just one among hundreds hatched from a clone vat with memories endlessly duplicated, all of them forced into a desperate mission to save their twin worlds from a swarm of sentient Plague Queens intent on wreaking vengeance for the horrific abuse they had suffered. Abominations who had once been perfectly innocent children before being forced to endure such agony for the benefit of shadowy players who had seen them as nothing more than lab experiments to be endlessly manipulated like pieces on a chessboard.

  Just like he had been.

  He clenched his fists as sudden melancholy sought to overwhelm him, shouting it down with his fierce resolve to become so much more than his masters had ever intended.

  “Who cares what the fuck my origins are? Who cares if I'm less than a week old? I've fought for what I believed in, rescued children in dire peril, and taken on nightmarish abominations. I played the hero just like I always dreamed of. I control the reins of my own destiny, and I sure as fuck am not letting anyone treat me like their experiment ever again!”

  The polite knock turned to a desperate hammer. "Please, for fuck's sake, John. I know you can sense me, which means you have to be close by! I'm sorry, alright? I'm sorry I'm not who you thought I was. But the times we shared, they were real, John. The love I had for you as a brother and friend, it was real! Who cares if it was implanted a hundred times over? I knew one day you would blossom like a fucking phoenix, no matter how many weaker clones were destroyed. And the one who rose from the ashes of all the others was the one I'd call brother. The one I'd call friend.

  “Our shared past is not a lie, John, no matter what Father thinks. No matter what my reflections think!"

  Reflections? John blinked. Speechless. Stunned by both the audacity of his brother's declaration and the sincerity as well.

  “You’re serious. You really did… not love, but at least gave a fuck about me.” Or at least, one version of his brother did. As much as it was a relief to think that maybe his brother wasn’t the mastermind player their father was, it saddened John to think that Mitch was just another piece on the board like him.

  Assuming, of course, Mitch wasn’t just feeding John what he wanted to hear in order to lure him in.

  “Please, get to the extraction point. Get here ASAP! We’re trying to hold our own, but it’s not going so well.”

  The desperation in his brother’s voice broke through John’s bitterness.

  Mitch's fear was real. And the memories John had of all the good times they had shared? Perhaps not his own, but for someone, they had been as real as life itself.

  Someone just like him.

  “Why, Mitch? Why the fuck… if you really gave a fuck, why did you let this happen?”

  “Please, John, we have no time! Dad’s been taken in, and Caesar’s initiating a purge. He’s destroying everything. Every clone, every experiment, every trace we ever existed. That means us, too, John. We’re both on his hit list! You, me, and all our friends. We just jumped through the gate, and I think we’re in a fucking dungeon. How the hell did the extraction point become a dungeon?”

  John’s heart began to hammer. “What the hell? Experiments… who? What friends? Wait, Caesar wants us dead?”

  “John, please, we don’t have time for this!”

  The panic in his brother’s voice made his gut clench.

  “Okay, what do you need me to do?”

  “Thank God you don’t hate me, brother. Look, we just jumped through, but we can’t shut off the gate. Caesar’s men could come through at any moment, once they break through the reinforced security I flipped on before jetting. Chris, Emily, and
I are armed, but sabers and mail won’t do shit against blasters.”

  John blinked. “You don’t know how to kit yourself to ward against Dominion fire?”

  “You’re talking like we had time to plan for shit! Please, John. We’re caught between a rock and a hard place. Highlord Rojan’s wrested control over what should have been a neutral territory, and that bastard’s always had it in for Father. No doubt he’s given all his men orders to shoot to kill, and if he gets a hold of me… look, I know I’m the farthest thing from a perfect brother, but do you really want to see me spending eternity suffering in a pain vat? And they’ll kill Carl, Lucy, and Emily for sure, Mercenary Accords be damned.”

  “Emily...” He recalled so vividly her warm violet eyes and the slight flush to her cheeks when she had asked him out. Her playful smile and clever words worn like a shield, her gaze both vulnerable and hopeful and how her grin had shown like the sun when he had accepted, even when she made it clear it would just be him and her. A date they had never had the chance to go on, their lives having taken the cruelest of turns.

  He winced as his mind flashed across the faces of all those who had already fallen under his watch. It didn’t matter how messed up his family was, or how twisted his relationship with Mitch was. All that mattered was that people he knew, people he cared about were in trouble.

  He would not let them down again.

  “Alright, Mitch. I’m on it.”

  The relief in his brother’s voice was palpable. “Thank you, John. Please, wake up and get here as fast as you can. Either the door to the rest of the complex or the one back on Earth is bound to give out soon...” his sudden chuckle was bitter. “There’s no way you can get here in thirty minutes, is there? I’ll bet you’re miles away. Just shows how pathetically desperate I am right now.”

  “Sorry, Mitch, I am.”

  “Phoebe’s Mercy… alright, bro. Sorry I fucked you over so bad. For what it’s worth, I did the best I could to watch your back with Father. You’re already a hell of a lot more than what he expected. You know how to fight like a human, you’re not forced to become… whatever the hell he was aiming at. Remember me well, alright, John?”

  “Just shut the fuck up and hold your horses. I’m coming.”

  “How? Don’t get me wrong, I sure as shit would love to see your snarky face, but how?”

  “I’m going to call in a favor.”

  John took a deep breath, touching the door, somehow knowing that Mitch was gone.

  He turned around, knowing he was still lost in dream, and what was waiting behind him.

  “Hello, John.”

  John solemnly bowed before the regal looking Lady Elowin Everwood. Her beauty was, if anything, even more striking and surreal in his dream than when she had first recalled her true form.

  She smiled. "As is only fitting, Johnathan Everwood. For the realms of Dream and Arcadia are not that distant from one another. Mundus is the lodestone between us both.”

  John was actually relieved she could read his mind, recalling that at least the human version of herself had been sired by a Highlord. It made things easier. "I know that the atrocities committed by my father’s clan and all his damned cronies are pretty much unforgivable. But Mitch is my brother." There was so much else he could have said, but he sensed that inner truth, the core of what compelled him, was what she needed to hear.

  She frowned, tilting her head. “He is no innocent, you know. Not even that version of himself. Were it not for his interest in you, he’d be just as bad as your sire.”

  John grimaced and looked away. “I know he’s done some fucked up crap, but that doesn’t change the fact that I care about him. He was my best friend long before I found out he was kin. And now he’s in serious trouble.”

  He clenched his fists. “I can’t tell you how much it pains me, not to have been able to rescue your sister. It doesn't matter that I hardly knew her, I would have loved the chance to. I think... I know there was a spark between us. Her smile made it clear she felt it too. I think we could have been something special. To say nothing of what happened to poor Sophia, or Mason, a man who loved his girl even if he hated the rest of the world. And every soldier under Agneta’s care. Because no matter what happens, there’s no way I can bring her back, bring any of them back, I mean.” He swallowed, daring to meet her gaze. “Or Is there?”

  Elowin gave a sad shake of her head.

  “Exactly. I can do nothing for the fallen, except avenge their deaths, which I have." He shuddered in sudden memory of Lilith's terrified gaze, transfixing John with the eyes of a frightened child, moments before she had exploded in bronze shrapnel and blood. "The only other thing I can do is make their deaths mean something. By being there for people who are counting on me and doing my best to make sure that no one else perishes that I could have saved!”

  The faerie gazed thoughtfully at John for long moments before finally dipping her head. "My father is impressed by your rescue. I know he regrets having to cast you out when you were aligned to Horror. I fear the temptations you will experience, once you are back under your brother's influence. But ultimately, that should be your choice, not mine."

  Her smile turned rueful. “Unfortunately, my former coven is just now returning. Considering all that has happened, the devastating loss that so many will experience, you really don’t want to be in sight of those who would find you an altogether too tempting target to pin their grief upon. It would be best if you left the area immediately, and under the circumstances, none can forsake the boon I would grant you.”

  Solemnly, she placed her now glowing hands upon his temples and John did nothing to resist, crying out for an endless moment when he experienced a short burst of pain, even in his dream.

  Congratulations! You have learned Woodland Step! This Arcadian Power will allow you to traverse vast distances in a single step, so long as you are surrounded by trees or dense head-high foliage for ten feet in all directions. You must have at least basic familiarity with your destination. Cost to cast: 10 Mana. Time to cast: 20 seconds. Range of spell: 1 mile. Each additional rank of this spell will cut casting time in half, reduce the foliage requirement by 2 feet, and extend the range by 1 order of magnitude.

  John gasped as the knowledge flooded into him, somehow witnessing the casting of this spell a dozen times over as a circle of chanting Fae summoned ancient Arcadian deities and potencies in a magnificent ceremony that had occurred centuries ago. He was filled with a sense of wonder as exotic magics flowed through him, chilled to see at least a few ancient pairs of eyes meeting his own, for all that he knew he was naught but a spirit momentarily pulled a thousand years beyond his time.

  John shivered. “What was that?”

  “A grand moot, discussing the loss of an ancient ally, and the rising of a perilous force that could doom us all.”

  “Serious stuff. What did you guys decide?”

  Elowin gazed thoughtfully off in the distance. “We put wildcards in play, one of which is seizing the board as we speak.”

  John blinked. “Wait, what board are we talking about? And you guys planned all that out, over a thousand years ago?”

  “Time has little meaning for the children of Arcadia, save for when destiny or our hearts compel us to embrace mortal lives once more. But for you, and those you love, Johnathan Everwood, the moments tick perilously by.”

  “You’re right. I need to wake up and get going ASAP!” He frowned. “But my spell’s range is only a mile.”

  She nodded solemnly. “Even a Faerie Lord’s gift can only teach you the first tier of any power you would claim as your own. It is your own potency, how noteworthy your voice is within destiny's concert, that determines how powerful your gift will ultimately be.”

  “In other words, I have to spend character or potency points to rank it up further. Got it.” He smiled at her bemused expression. “What was it like?”

  Captivating blue eyes smiled into his own. He shuddered with awe as he caught sight
of her brilliant golden crown. “The life I lived as a mortal woman, experiencing what it meant to be a mother, a wife, a sister... It’s like waking up from a dream both beautiful and bittersweet.” Feather-soft lips caressed his cheek. “Thank you for freeing my husband’s and sister’s spirits from darkness, Johnathan Everwood. It is only thanks to your own strange gifts that the taint was so thoroughly removed from their souls.”

  John smiled, blinking back tears he refused to shed. "It haunts me, to think of Agneta's face when I… struck her. To feel that darkest part of myself somehow feed upon her. I'm glad to know it was only the taint that I consumed." He swallowed. "May I ask where they are now?"

  “They rest in the bosom of my realm, and will one day be born anew to parents who will love and cherish them as much as I.”

  John squeezed his eyes shut, too choked up to say a word. When he opened them once more, he found himself prone upon the ground at the scene of so much horror and death, though the horror he had faced had long since been consumed to ash. As far as the double handful of villagers that had actually been Arcadian faeries, he saw no trace.

  Then he heard the hue and cry of men in the keep above, and knew he was running out of time.

  Frantically, he searched for another way out of the domed chamber, looking for any kind of back entrance as he eased past iron cages, shattered laboratory equipment, toxic slime, and the grisly remains of numerous victims.

  There was nothing. Nothing save the desperate cries of a clan full of wizards returning to find their homes and families destroyed.

  “Not good,” he muttered to himself before remembering the nuts he had foraged with the children that had been under his care, realizing he was being seven kinds of fool.

  "Vinia viridi" an anxious John whispered before the handful of chestnuts he had placed on the ground in the far-most shadowy corner, feeling a sudden surge of hope that his crazy idea might actually work as several chestnut trees sprouted to life before his eyes in the cellar depths.