Legacy of Death_Revenge

by Thomas J. L. Green

  “Get me breakfast. Triple portion brought to the saloon between the main hall and our clan’s war room,” Zerae commanded coldly.

  “Yes, War Leader.”

  11

  Zerae

  “May I have a word, War Leader?” Elaine Darkscream intercepted Zerae on her way from the hall of the grand council.

  “Matron,” Zerae nodded.

  “If I may ask privately, what do you think about the search for our Goddess which we’ve been pursuing for the past two years?” Elaine asked calmly.

  “I believe it is a bold move, matron,” Zerae replied cautiously.

  “I think it’s a pile of horseshit. We have no proof our Goddess as much as exists, much less that she should have a physical form and even less that she is trapped somewhere waiting for us to rescue her,” Elaine stated.

  “Worse, it makes us vulnerable. Our search shall leak out, sooner or later but it shall, and then there will be those who shall try to use it to bait us. ‘Help us with something and we shall help you find your Goddess’, such an offer would be very tempting should the search not go well,” Zerae revealed.

  “Sibyl told me the same thing,” Elaine smiled, “and yes, I will try to keep us out of accepting any of such deals, but I tend to get outvoted when the high council is involved.”

  “Can’t you manipulate it so the lower council cannot be excluded from any related voting?” Zerae asked.

  “No, Mathilde would never let that happen. She is good at manipulating Karmen, which gives her power over the high council. Diluting the vote would decrease her power,” Elaine refused.

  Zerae sighed, “I guess we just have to keep searching.”

  “Just by the way, how do you plan to search the Taeba Mountains, which are up next? They are over thousand miles long, I know you just received the mission, but you surely have an idea,” Elaine pried.

  “I will make small teams of everyone available, split the area into sectors and assign the teams to them. We might not find the Goddess, but we should find something useful at the very least,” Zerae revealed.

  “Excellent plan, I would like to put Elizabeth in your team,” Elaine announced.

  “Why?”

  “Astril has been a great influence on her and I believe she shall also be on your team as well,” Elaine replied.

  “How the hell is Astril a good influence on anyone? In any case, Elizabeth is too young for this; she should be at school,” Zerae contested.

  “I believe a visual demonstration shall prove more fruitful than mere words, come today after sunset to the proving grounds. I will show you what I’m talking about,” Elaine smiled warmly.

  “Alright.”

  “So, what exactly am I here to see?” Zerae asked Elaine as they met on the proving grounds.

  “Just watch, this way,” Elaine led her deep into the proving grounds. She let her sideways into the bushes that surrounded it. They could hear them before they could see them.

  “Stretch? What type of a little pussy are you that you need to stretch? Just run through the fucking track, what’s with all these bullshit preparations? You are just preparing excuses for when you fail, aren’t you?” Astril kept pestering Elizabeth.

  “Let me concentrate for a bit! You want me to run through this damn track, fine, I will do it, but let me get ready!” Elizabeth exclaimed.

  “Get ready for what? It’s just a few platforms, swings, climbs and other bullshits. There is nothing to concentrate on, so just run for it so I can get back to my date with Sonja and Tanja,” Astril asked.

  “Date? That’s how you call it? You’re gonna fuck for the whole night, that’s what it’s about. It’s bad enough that I will have to listen to it when I try to fall asleep, now you want me to rush to not miss a few minutes? Come the fuck on!” Elizabeth countered.

  “When you grow older, you will understand how great can a few minutes with a girl be,” Astril smirked smugly, “but now get to work. I am hungry, thirsty and horny. So, move!”

  “You are all of that all the time! You are just bitter Zerae doesn’t have time for you!” Elizabeth shouted.

  Zerae sighed and hit her face with her palm. “What exactly is the context of this?”

  “I promised Astril a big chunk of chocolate if she can get Elizabeth to finish the track, more if she can do it under a minute,” Elaine revealed.

  “This is the entrance test track for warriors; there is no way she can even finish it,” Zerae breathed.

  “Oh, just watch,” Elaine smiled, “remind me, what are the track’s statistics?”

  “Eighty percent failure rate, the average time of completion is about two minutes and the record is fifty-two seconds, made by me,” Zerae replied.

  “Well, let’s see how it pans out,” Elaine directed her attention back to girls.

  “If you are so smart, why don’t you show me how it’s done?” Elizabeth tried.

  “Boohooo, the track looks too hard, show me how to do it, mommy, I’m scared!” Astril mocked Elizabeth in an imitation of her own voice.

  Elizabeth sighed. “Fine, I will show you!” She leaped off the starting platform. Astril and Elaine both started their stop watches. They all watched Elizabeth jump over the platforms and climb up a tall net.

  “Are you even trying? I’ve seen an armadillo climb faster than this!” Astril shouted at Elizabeth.

  She was too busy to reply. She quickly scaled the net, ran over the rope that stretched to the net platform and jumped up to catch herself by a ledge. She swiftly moved her hands to move along it.

  “How long do you plan to stay there? I don’t want to miss the dinner and you are going like a snail! Old and tired snail!” Astril kept poking her.

  Elizabeth finished the ledge and caught herself by a bar. She sprung up to leap to the next bar.

  “She is seriously fast,” Zerae breathed.

  “Oh, I know, I took her to the graduation track the other day. She casually ran through it and told me that she’s now warmed up, so I can take her to the real track,” Elaine revealed.

  “Graduation track isn’t anything easy,” Zerae remarked, “what the hell did Astril do to her in the past year?”

  “I have no idea, but it’s clearly a good influence on her, isn’t it? Look, she’s almost at the finish,” Elaine pointed.

  Elizabeth was just finishing the last climb up the free hanging rope. “DONE!” she shouted when she reached the top.

  “Two and half minutes, pathetic,” Astril announced, “it’s good that nobody saw us because that would have been seriously embarrassing.”

  “There’s no way this was two and half minutes,” Zerae looked at Elaine.

  “Of course, it wasn’t, it was fifty-seven seconds. Sixth fastest time ever, I believe,” Elaine replied calmly.

  “You don’t seem to be surprised,” Zerae observed.

  “Not at all. She lacks practice with her magic, but physically she is as good as the average warrior.”

  “Alright, I suppose I can take her to my team. It’s not like we will be doing anything dramatic anyway,” Zerae breathed.

  “Excellent,” Elaine smiled.

  “One more thing, matron, could you stop me a time?” Zerae asked.

  “Wanna see if you would lose to a kid? Sure,” Elaine confirmed.

  Zerae ignored the taunt. Without any stretching or preparation, she dashed onto the track. “What was my time?” she asked once she was done.

  “Thirty-two seconds,” Elaine replied.

  Zerae narrowed her eyes. “Show me. It’s not that I wouldn’t trust you, matron, but I don’t want you to pull Astril on me.”

  Elaine smiled and tossed her the stopwatches.

  Good. Thirty-two seconds while wearing high heeled boots. I still got it.

  “YOU ARE LATE!” Zerae thundered as Astril and Elizabeth arrived on the platform. She had spent past two hours waiting for them with Leena and Chloe Voidwalker. Leena was casually smoking a huge greenish cigar, while Chloe sat
by the side patiently. She had a small frame, long straight hair and a soft looking face.

  “Sorry, I needed to get ready,” Astril smiled innocently.

  “And stop at Sonja, Tanja, Oria and Helen on the way here,” Elizabeth added meanly.

  “GAH!” Astril exclaimed.

  “Can’t you go half a day without all this whoring?” Zerae exclaimed. She pierced Astril with a stare.

  “Be nicer to me and I might,” Astril replied poisonously, “plus we will be gone for a few days, so I needed to make up for it.”

  Zerae slapped her face with her palm. “Let’s just move.”

  “Sure,” Astril smiled victoriously, “oh, hey Chloe!” Astril disappeared and instantly reappeared behind Chloe. She caught her in a hug, “Welcome back. Have you brought some fun new toys?”

  “ASTRIL!” Zerae shouted.

  “Later,” Astril kissed her swiftly on the neck and went to her mount.

  “Ehm,” Elizabeth looked at Astril.

  “Ah, right. Elizabeth, this is Chloe Voidwalker, she has the softest coochie in town… and she’s the right hand of Sibyl, the Voidwalker champion,” Astril announced, “Chloe, meet Elizabeth Darkscream, she’s an annoying little kid and she will be flying with you.”

  “I’m not annoying! YOU ARE! I’m not a kid anymore either! And did you just ditch me?” Elizabeth blurted.

  “Your puppets are too heavy for Birdie,” Astril replied as if it explained everything.

  “Heavy my ass! You want to have your mount free, so you can jump at Zerae the first chance you get! Even I can see through this!” Elizabeth retorted.

  “You know, one day, you will meet a girl. You will like her, she will like you, everything will be nice, sweet and rosy and then you will make this girl really, really UNHAPPY!” Astril announced meanly and spun on her heel.

  “Don’t worry; she doesn’t really mean it… it will be alright,” Chloe went to Elizabeth to comfort her.

  “Thank you,” Elizabeth breathed and turned to her. Chloe was just a bit taller than her; she had a small frame, gentle features and weak but soothing voice.

  “Let’s take your puppets, there is plenty of room on Viljik, don’t worry about that,” Chloe motioned to her mount. It was a large blue eagle with two sets of wings. Its feathers were surprisingly soft. Elizabeth exchanged a mean look with Astril and went to get up on it.

  “Was she right?” Zerae tossed at Astril as she approached her mount.

  “Flying is boring; we could have some fun in the meantime,” Astril smiled warmly, “plus it’s not like we’ve never done it above the clouds before.”

  “No,” Zerae refused flatly, “we are on a mission, we need to do this properly.”

  “Meh,” Astril sighed, “this is boring.”

  “We haven’t even left,” Zerae remarked.

  “I hate this trip already.”

  “Boring. Boooring! BOOOORIIIIIIIIIING!”

  “Shut the fuck up, Astril!” Zerae ordered.

  “There is nothing in here. We have spent DAYS going through these mountains. DAYS! Hey! Look! We have finally found something! It’s a ROCK! WOOOOOW! That changes everything… NOOOOOT!” Astril exclaimed in frustration.

  We have actually been doing this for way over two years, I only just told you now because Elaine made me take Elizabeth and this, exactly this is why I made sure you didn’t know. But I do understand. To find nothing is a valid result of a search, but even I expected more after years of searching.

  “I’m hungry! I’m thirsty! My back hurts! There is nothing in here! Let’s just go raid a village or something! I want chocolate!” Astril continued.

  “And I thought she was annoying back in the forest,” Elizabeth exhaled as she was cleaning her puppets. She already did all the exercises she had from Elaine, so all she could do is clean up the puppets and do them again. Like every day since she was sword into the Darkscream clan a few months ago. This was about the thousandth iteration of Astril’s monologue. At first, she thought she was rewarded by being put in the unit of the War Leader herself. Now she was sure it was a punishment. She wondered what had she done to Elaine to deserve this, but couldn’t think of anything. The second mystery which occupied her mind was why Zerae brings Astril along. No matter how she looked at it, there was absolutely no reason to have her here.

  “Let’s just keep searching,” Zerae exhaled.

  “Oh look! A ROCK! This one has a small white spot on it! WOOHOOO! Now that’s something… NOT!” Astril exclaimed.

  “SHUT UP!” Zerae shouted.

  “For what? THERE IS NOTHING IN HERE! Just like there wasn’t anything around the mountain we checked yesterday, the one from two days ago or the one from the day fucking one! I. AM. BORED!” Astril kicked the rock in front of her. It fell off the cliff.

  *BOOM!* Echoed from the bottom, followed by the sound of more falling rocks.

  “Huuuh? This didn’t sound like anything. There is a hole in the mountain.” Astril went to the ledge to look down. Zerae, Elizabeth and Chloe joined her.

  “Looks like a cave. Fasten a rope; we are descending down there; I go first and…” Zerae started ordering.

  “WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!” Astril shouted as she slid down the mountain.

  “What’re you staring at? MOVE!” Zerae insisted and the rest of the girls went to fasten the rope. Zerae went to splash water on Leena. It had no effect. She picked her up and took her over the shoulder, then took the rope and used it to slide down to the cave. Elizabeth and Chloe followed her.

  “This group,” Elizabeth breathed.

  “What group would you like?” Chloe asked her softly.

  “One without Astril,” Elizabeth exhaled. Chloe just smiled awkwardly. They descended into a cave. The rock apparently crashed the ceiling.

  “Nananananaaaaa nananaaaaa nanananaaanaaanaaanaaa, nana…” echoed from a distance.

  “Let’s go,” Zerae sighed and led the way, still carrying Leena over her shoulder. “Catch,” Zerae said and wordlessly tossed Leena like a sack of potatoes at Chloe. Chloe caught her in her arms.

  “How do you have patience for this?” Elizabeth asked her.

  “I work with Sibyl… I am used to all sorts of things,” Chloe answered.

  “What is she like… she is the Voidwalker military commander, right?” Elizabeth probed, enjoying the moment of sanity.

  “She sleeps eighteen hours a day, give or take,” Chloe revealed, “and no, she doesn’t do anything in the remaining six.”

  “I am starting to feel like I was really lucky to end up in the Darkscream clan,” Elizabeth admitted.

  “Just wait till your former matron pops up. All clans have their share of crazy,” Chloe chuckled.

  “Our previous matron? I haven’t heard of her, nor have I seen any paintings or statues,” Elizabeth was genuinely surprised.

  “She is said to be dead,” Chloe smirked, “but it doesn’t mean she won’t pop up.”

  “Oh.”

  The cavern led deep, incredibly deep into the mountain. It was steep, very steep.

  “Naaananana nananananaaaaaaaa nanananaaaaa,” Astril’s singing got close.

  They entered a large cavern. Inside were scattered corpses of massive spiders and cobwebs. Burning corpses of spiders and burning cobwebs. Burning with yellow and blue flames.

  Astril was sitting on a rock, cleaning her swords.

  “Naaaaaaaaaanananana naaaaa naaaaaaa nananannananana naaaaa.”

  “Shut up, Astril,” Zerae commanded and Astril did.

  Silence at last! I need to embrace it for the few seconds it lasts.

  “How’d she kill so many spiders so fast?” Elizabeth breathed. There were over thirty of them scattered across the cave.

  “What is this?” Chloe stared at a wall. It was perfectly flat, rectangular and had a lot of circles connected by lines carved into it.

  “Wake up Leena!” Zerae ordered Astril.

  *SCREEE!*

  A massive spid
er leaped up from the wall at Elizabeth. She saw it flying at her and was already dodging by pure instinct. Faster than the blink of an eye, Zerae drew her blade and swung it downwards in one seamless move. She cut the spider in half.

  “Pay attention,” she pierced Elizabeth with a look. She shivered. “ASTRIL!” Zerae shouted.

  “Alright, alright, alright, alright,” Astril went to Leena. She picked her from Chloe’s arms and put her on the ground. She then softly lied down on her and kissed her neck.

  “So, this is how you wake her up,” Chloe remarked as she watched Astril softly kissing Leena’s neck while slowly moving up to her mouth.

  “All clans have their share of crazy,” Elizabeth smirked. Leena and Astril were now passionately kissing and starting to undress.

  “THAT’S ENOUGH!” Zerae thundered.

  “Meeeh… I was having such a nice dream… oh,” Leena looked around. “Now that’s something,” she added as she saw the wall with circles and lines.

  “What do you think it is?” Zerae asked.

  “Map. But I don’t know what or to where. Elizabeth, Chloe, make a drawing of it. Separately. Use different colors for the different symbols. Circles red, crosses blue, lines yellow, spirals green, squares brown,” Leena replied and took out a set of pastels and papers from her backpack. Elizabeth didn’t ask why she had that, just took it and went to split them up with Chloe. She wanted to protest, but just looking at Zerae changed her mind.

  Zerae went to sit by the middle of the room, Leena was staring at the carving on the wall while Astril was lying on the ground doing nothing. She was silent, which made Elizabeth’s skin crawl. Something was wrong, but she didn’t know what.

  “Six people, four heavy armors, one spellcaster, one kinda silent, southern entrance,” Leena announced.

  Astril got up and drew her swords.

  “Keep working, we got it,” Zerae turned to the other three.

  Zerae sat in the middle of the cave while pretending she is doing nothing. Astril moved to stand sideways to the entrance. Elizabeth was stunned by how silent could Astril be when she tried. All of them now heard the steps coming from the tunnel.