by Kate Sander
The Remiel. It had almost gone over the cliff and Jolan, in the dark, had stepped right over it.
She clasped on to it, suddenly so tired. Her lover, the only man she'd ever trusted, was going to kill her. All for this stupid stone.
Her decision was made.
Jolan stopped at the edge to readjust his grip.
"Don't do this," she said. "I love you."
Jolan smiled. "I know you did."
He threw her over the cliff.
The Remiel left her hand and fell with her. Cass fell backwards, almost in slow motion. She saw the look of horror cross Jolan's face as he realized what he did. Not for her, no, but for the stone. The stone she poured her heart and soul into. The stone she used as a vehicle for her power.
The Remiel hit the rocks and shattered, pieces swept away by the raging currents.
Cass hit the ocean and was dead in seconds, her head smashing against the rocks, and the swirling waters carrying her out to sea.
Tory launched herself upright, gasping to breathe.
"Calmly," Monk Oh said beside her. "Calmly, Tory. You're safe." He grabbed her arm lightly, steering her to the pool. They'd put her on a comfortable cot beside the pool. A monk had brought a light broth for her and tea and another had made sure the water was a perfect temperature. Oh led her to the edge of the pool, helping her lower her frail body into the warm waters. The sun was setting over the mountain and the room was getting dark, despite the fire burning in a hearth.
Tory sat in the pool fully clothed. The extreme nausea subsided. Oh brought her a warm cup of tea and she drank it greedily, trying to get the bitter taste of the herb out of her mouth.
"Her love killed her," she said at last. It was dark out, Tory had been sitting in silence for hours, Oh waiting patiently beside her, a different monk taking water out of the pool and replacing it with warm water. "So he obviously never loved her."
"He did love her, at one time," Oh said. "But like you said before, power corrupts. He grew jealous of the stone and Cass pouring her love and soul into it. Jealousy turned to hatred."
"You're telling me that Ujarak will do the same to me?"
Oh nodded. "Yes. You look like Cass, and did you notice Jolan's striking resemblance to your own love? He will betray you for the stone. It's what happens."
Tory shook her head, "He won't," she said firmly.
Oh looked at her sadly, but didn't argue.
"Who was Cass anyway?"
"Cass was the first Zoya. She was the first to come from the other world to this one."
"And I'm her?"
"Not exactly. You are a descendant of her. You're the daughter of a woman Zoya, a rare occurrence as Zoya don't often live for nine months to bring a child into this world. Your mother was a Zoya and a direct descendent of Cass in the other world."
Tory processed the information.
"You've unlocked the part of your brain that uses the Remiel. Cass was the first Zoya, and you're destined to stop them. Time comes full circle."
13
Tomo
"What do you mean, they are looking for me?" Tomo asked Genkei. They were still kneeling around the table of Eito’s and Chuya's kitchen. Akira and Chuya were outside. Tomo could hear them in the garden, Akira's giggles reaching them over the soft chirps of birds in the trees. "Start from the beginning."
Genkei nodded. He was clearly still distressed. "We woke this morning at daylight, like any other morning. The village was calm and quiet. I went off into the woods to hunt for game to sell at my family’s butcher shop. When I came back," his voice broke. "I wasn't gone more than a few hours. When I came back, I knew something was wrong. The village should have been bustling with how nice the weather was. Instead there was nothing. No sound. Even the birds had grown silent. I sneaked my way to the village square..." He took a moment to collect himself. Akira's shrieks of laughter, normally a joy to hear, grated on Tomo's nerves. They seemed so out of place that she didn't want to hear them at all.
"There were four of them in the center of the square. Ampulex. They were in the purple and black armour of the Ampulex generals. One was huge, a mountain of a man with a giant axe and horns in his helmet. A small one, she looked no more than a teenager, was speaking. The elders of our village were bound on their knees in front of them. 'Time's up,' the girl said to them. 'Tell me where the Empress of Blood is.' One of our elder women replied, 'She's dead. She died three years ago as she led Anzen's warriors in battle in a war that didn't need to be fought. A justified and deserved end, if you believe the stories of the deaths she caused.'" Genkei's face flushed as he relayed the words of the elder, and he shot Tomo an embarrassed look.
"She's not wrong," Tomo said. Akira had finally stopped laughing, letting Tomo think a little bit. "Please continue."
"The Ampulex girl killed her. They killed all of them. I think I must have made a noise during the execution because I heard a shout as I fled. I only just got away."
Silence outside.
"Wait, you mean they saw you watching?" Tomo said sharply.
Not even birds. Tomo got chills rushing down her back.
Silence. Complete silence.
Shit.
"Yes I believe so."
The window in the dining room shattered as the arrow flew through it and pierced Genkei's throat. He fell face first onto the table, spilling tea and shattering glasses. His blood pooled with the tea. With a gurgle of pain and surprise, Genkei died.
Tomo's hand was on the hilt of her sword and she was charging the door. Eito was close behind her. A scream, loud and long, had them skidding to a stop. The screech stopped as abruptly as it started and had Tomo and Eito exchanging a terrified look.
"Chuya!" Eito yelled, pushing past Tomo to the door.
"Wait-"
The door exploded inwards, shattering in a million pieces. Eito was tossed violently against the wall and crumpled to the floor. Tomo managed to hop out of the way as a man bigger than any she'd seen charged into the room. Dressed as Genkei said he would be, the giant man skidded to a stop and swung his giant axe right at Tomo's midsection. Tomo threw herself into a forward roll and the axe missed the top of her head by an inch. She drew her katana as she rolled and stood up swinging.
That's the thing about large men. They're slow.
Her sword chopped his head clean off, helmet and all. A mighty clang rang through the small house as blood spurted up to the ceiling. The Ampulex general fell face first on top of the dead Genkei. Tomo winced when the table broke under their combined weight.
A grunt from the floor behind her called her attention away.
"Eito," she said, rushing up to him. "Eito are you okay?"
Blood was leaking from his mouth, and his laboured, wheezing breaths told her the answer. He grabbed her shirt and pulled her close. "Save Akira," he mumbled.
Tomo didn't watch him die. She couldn't spare the time.
"I will," she said and she ran out of the broken doorway.
The body of Chuya was lying on the ground at the feet of another Ampulex man. Wearing thin, black, leather armour without a helmet, Tomo could see the two daggers on his hips.
"You!" she yelled, pointing her sword at him, breathing hard. "You bastards come in here and kill them to get to me? COME GET ME!"
She charged, katana held high.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you," a familiar voice said from behind her. Tomo stopped and turned.
"No," she breathed. "Not you."
Kelly smiled at her, "Sorry, I'm not sure that I know you. My name is Eris, and I'm the Princess of the Ampulex."
"No, you're not," Tomo said weakly. All the fight had gone out of her. It was her fault Kelly was here. She'd made the pills. Now Kelly was walking down the path of killing innocents. What had she done? "Your name is Kelly. We met in another world where all Zoya come from. I couldn't save you then. I tried but I couldn't save you."
Kelly could have never predicted that this was going to happen. "Lies," Ke
lly hissed. "My name is Eris and I'm the adopted daughter of Queen Mother Malin and King Father Roald. I have no memories from before because they took a sniveling and weak girl and turned her into the Princess of the Ampulex."
Tomo sighed. "I'm sorry."
Tomo charged. Kelly brandished her Khopesh, a sword with a crescent moon shape that Tomo knew was Egyptian. Their swords met in a clash. Kelly parried and dodged well, but Tomo was better trained and older. She began to beat the teenager down, but kept pulling the katana away before it made a knick.
"Listen to me," Tomo said as she swung. "This isn't you. You were a nice girl, Kelly."
"My. Name. Is. ERIS!" She swung the khopesh angrily and Tomo didn't get her sword up in time. It cut her arm as she dodged away.
"I sent you here!" Tomo yelled. "Why can I remember and you can't?"
"LIES!" Kelly yelled as she charged.
Tomo dodged and got her fist up to punch her in the face and hopefully slow her down. Her fist hit her face. Tomo screamed. It was like punching steel as hard as she could. Her hand collapsed into a broken mess and hung uselessly at her side.
Kelly held the khopesh to her neck. "My skin is invincible," she said. "You cannot defeat me. Zoya have gotten stronger since you came over here, Blood Empress. It's time to learn your place. General Camora!" The man who killed Chuya hustled over. "Bind her hands."
Another man jogged up as Camora roughly grabbed Tomo's hands and put them behind her back. Nausea swept over Tomo as the pain was unbearable.
"She got away," the man said to Kelly. "I'm sorry Princess."
Tomo's heart leapt. Akira got away.
I'm sorry Akira the Mighty, she thought through tears. I cannot come with you. I'm sorry your parents died because of me. I will have vengeance if I can.
"Leave her," Kelly barked. "If you fail me again, General Pile, I will have no choice but to kill you. Let's go."
They hauled Tomo to her feet and marched her away, one painful step at a time.
14
Akira
Akira waited for hours in the roots of a large fir tree. The cold settled in, and she had to move or freeze. As the sun set in the forest, the air grew cold, especially in the ground. She untangled her hands from around her shins and squeezed her way out of the roots. The hole she'd been hiding in was only big enough for her and that man in the black armour had no chance of finding her.
She waited in silence for what seemed like hours, trying to be sure it wasn't a trap. The growling of her stomach was so loud she was scared it would give her away. Deciding that they would have now killed her if they could have and she was, indeed, alone, Akira picked her way through the forest back to her house.
She knew what she would find. Her mother's scream cut short was burned in her mind. She wasn't stupid. Her family was dead. But she needed to be sure. She had to see it for herself.
It took twenty minutes for her to make the clearing where the house stood. The wind howled. A storm was blowing in. Akira shivered and clutched her skinny arms around herself.
Stumbling, she reached the clearing and stopped in her tracks.
The scream had prepared her. She thought it had.
Her mother was lying dead in the grass.
The scream hadn't prepared her at all.
Akira rushed to her side.
"Mother!" she sobbed. "Mother they are gone, you can get up."
Silence. She didn't move. Deep down, Akira knew she wouldn't.
"Father!" she called, and turned and ran to the house.
Her house, her home, the only place she had ever known, was completely destroyed. The pieces of the shattered door didn't cover her father's leg, lying there, unmoving.
But she had to be sure.
Her father was so active in life, yet so still in death.
"I'm sorry father," she sobbed. "I'm so sorry."
Rain fell. As did her tears.
Eventually they dried, and Akira the Mighty decided that she needed to carry on. Vengeance was the only thing on her mind.
The last moments of her mother's life flashed before her.
Akira had been laughing at a joke her mother had told as they weaved a basket together.
"Run, Akira." Her mother said in a monotone voice, staring at something over her shoulder. "Don't look back, love. Run."
Akira had run. Someone had followed and she'd stowed away in the tree roots. Her mother had screamed. Akira knew in her bones that it was her mother.
"I will avenge you, Father," Akira whispered to him.
But first, she needed to bury her family.
She dug three graves as deep as she could in the pouring rain. The work was hard, the mud thick, but she managed.
"Akira the Mighty," she muttered as she dug. Tomo's nickname for her. She needed to find Tomo. Someone took her. Otherwise, Tomo would still be here. And the giant man in the house with no head told her that Tomo had fought back.
By the time she had finished the graves, the clouds had cleared and the morning sun was on the horizon. Akira dragged her family and the man from the village to the graves. It was hard work.
"Hard work helps the soul," she said. A common phrase her father had used.
The last thing she did was take her father's katana. It was a family heirloom and rightfully hers.
The graves were left unmarked.
Akira put her pack together, bringing food and some water that she found in the destroyed kitchen. She left the giant on the floor. The wolves could pick away at him.
It didn't take her long to pick up the trail of the group that had attacked her family. Four distinct treads. Her mother had taught her how to hunt and track. She'd put that to good use.
She would find Tomo and kill anyone who got in her way.
Turning her back on the only life she ever knew, Akira the Mighty started her path of revenge..
15
Eris
"I know this isn't you," the mumbled voice said quietly in the dark.
Eris turned to the figure slouched uncomfortably by the fire. General Camora and General Pile were sleeping soundly, trusting in Eris to keep watch.
"You don't know me," Eris said quietly.
"I do," Tomo said. She spat out a wad of blood and Eris' stomach knotted with guilt. She should never have let Pile beat her so severely.
"See? You're feeling guilty about letting that guy smash my face in," Tomo said with a chuckle. Her left eye was so swollen it distorted her once beautiful face. Her smile was crooked and she had at least three missing teeth. Dried blood in her hair gave it an even deeper shade of red that danced wickedly in the fire light.
"I'm not," Eris snapped. "You killed his friend, General Samson. He had every right to hit you the way he did."
"Letting him walk all over you," Tomo said. "I thought better of you. I assumed you were in charge of this little mission. Where I'm from, we don't beat unarmed and bound prisoners."
"No you just kill them. What? You think I haven't heard the stories of the famous Blood Empress of Anzen?"
"The stories of my reign are often exaggerated," Tomo said softly. "Don't get me wrong, I helped spread the rumors myself. Fear is a great weapon if used properly. I probably saved countless lives, as most of the revolting territories laid down their weapons before our army got there."
"You're full of shit," Eris said. "You're just trying to make yourself feel better for killing everyone in villages."
"Seems that the Ampulex are doing the same. Didn't you just kill the entire village looking for me? The children too?"
Silence. Eris' guilt roiled in her gut.
"That's not my fault," Eris said. "Pile said-"
"Who is in charge?" Tomo demanded with such force that Eris snapped silent. "Under your command the village was slain, don't you forget it."
"I will be praised by the King and Queen," Eris said desperately. "They told me to bring you to them by any means necessary."
"Well you succeeded," Tomo said. "How does that ma
ke you feel? You're not one of them, Kelly."
"My name's not Kelly!" Eris said, too loudly. Pile snorted in his sleep and rolled over, making the duo fall silent until he was again sleeping soundly.
"My name is Eris, Princess of Ampulex," she whispered once he'd settled.
"You're a Zoya," Tomo said. "I sent you here. Back in our world, you were a sweet-hearted young woman named Kelly. Yes, you'd come from a rough background, but I could see that you were gentle. Why do you want to be this Princess of the Ampulex so badly? You know in your heart they are wrong."
"The Ampulex want peace," Eris said. "People as individuals are stupid and require guidance. Through the leadership of the Ampulex, peace is inevitable, as there will be no room for revolt."
Tomo chuckled. "Glad you were paying attention in school, kid. I was worried. Do you believe that? Do you honestly believe that the King and Queen want peace and aren’t doing this for some other reason they aren't telling you?"
Eris didn't know what to say.
"When they do what they are going to do to me tomorrow, ask yourself that. I will never join the Ampulex. I'd rather die making my own decisions than be some zombie shell of myself. You were once in a life of servitude. Deep down you remember. Now tell me, is taking away a person's choice the right thing to do?"
Eris stared at the fire. "It's for the greater good," she mumbled half-heartedly.
Tomo laughed. "Whatever you say, kid. Whatever you say." She yawned and closed her eyes, leaving Eris to stare into the fire.
The cheers of the Ampulex army greeted them as they marched the prisoner into the camp. Eris led, head held high, followed by General Pile and General Camora marching the bound and gagged prisoner between them.
"Well done, Princess, well done!" the blacksmith called to her. Worthless cheered as she passed and booed the prisoner, cursing her name. The prisoner walked with her head as high as Eris', ignoring the hatred.