by Skyler Grant
“I’ll take him,” Yve said, scritching him between the ears. Girls and cats.
“Agreed then,” I said.
The others were lead off to different parts of the palace and Sara took me to a room filled with soft pillows. A low table held a bottle of wine and several plates of appetizing sweets.
“Not a big believer in chairs?” I asked.
“I didn’t grow up with them. I can conjure one, if you prefer,” Sara offered.
That was kind, but I could make do. I settled down and she did the same.
“So, you know why I’ve come,” I said.
“I know what Tiger came here for, and of your mission to other worlds. You and several of those from the Silver City have been pushing for peace, yet not at the behest of Queen Ashera. I find this strange,” Sara said.
“Yet you seem willing to listen,” I said.
Sara poured herself a glass of wine and prepared one for me. I took a sip and found it powerfully flavored with spices I didn’t recognize. Unpleasant at first, although after a few moments I found myself taking another sip.
“As said before, bloodshed makes a powerful statement. What I don’t understand is why you push for peace. Queen Ashera has never been weaker. I know of your engagement and your breaking of it. You should be on our side,” Sara said.
I considered how much to say. I didn’t trust this woman, for all that she was putting on a pleasant demeanor. If Elsora called these witches evil, they truly were. Despite that she wanted them as our allies and seemed to think that possible.
“Do you know of the Nine?” I asked.
“We do. They are at the moment a worry for another day, although we like much of what we see. They in many ways seem kindred souls,” Sara said.
That was honest of her to admit. So Elsora was right about the witches, Elsora was always right.
“They’re my daughters,” I said.
That took Sara by surprise. I could see it in her eyes as she sipped at her wine. There was a prolonged period of silence that I didn’t interrupt. It was important she think things through as much as she needed.
“Then you are even closer to the center of events than you appeared. You don’t want the Nine getting caught up in our wars. You are seeking time to get your house in order,” Sara said.
“I am.”
“Do not let the fact that we are playing hospitable hosts somehow fool you about the depth of our powers. Do you know who we are? What we’re capable of?” Sara asked, suddenly very serious.
“The deadliest things in nature are usually the most beautiful,” I said.
That pleased her, bringing a faint hint of a smile. “I understand the desire to protect your family. If it is but a temporary refrain you seek, we should be able to accommodate you.”
Well, so far as staggeringly evil witches went, they were the cooperative sort. It made sense. My time in the Crucible Shard taught me that the evil were usually willing to take a step back—and seize opportunities when they presented themselves. It was the good people you had to watch out for. In the pursuit of what was right, they could be truly unyielding.
“I’m after more than just that,” I said. Elsora wanted an alliance, I might as well see if I could get her one.
“Assistance finding your daughters perhaps? We have been keeping watch,” Sara said.
“That would be helpful, but that’s not what I meant. Friendship, deep and lasting friendship,” I said.
The words drew a dark chuckle from Sara, who set her wineglass down. “Surprising, but unlikely. We value those friendships we have, and for that reason we keep them few. Trust is a valuable commodity.”
“I can earn it,” I said.
“You are free to try.”
“First, to show I truly do understand you, I know the secrets behind your beauty. I know the lengths you go to every year,” I said.
Sara gave a tiny frown. “Do you? Then again, it’s no real surprise. It is too large an operation to truly keep secret from everyone, and we really do prize a modest face. Well, then you know what lies behind our pretty appearance. What lurks behind yours?”
That was a fair request. I knew one of their evil little secrets, I should share one of mine.
“I ordered my home world destroyed in terror and violence. I unleashed a mechanical plague that will kill every man, woman, and child still alive,” I said. She was a witch, and probably had some means to test the truth of my words. While there was more to it, not a word of that was false.
“Then we stand revealed to each other. It is enlightening, but no basis for trust,” Sara said.
“I’ll bed you or as many of your other witches as you choose. I know of your fate-binding, you can link us as closely as you feel warranted.”
There was nothing in her gaze to even hint that she desired me as she considered my offer, simply calculation. “It is an intriguing proposal. We’ll need to investigate your fate first, make certain that you are not a trap meant to lure us in.”
“You have time, but don’t take too long. Events move at a frantic pace,” I said.
“You are in our world and time moves at the pace we will it to move,” Sara said, rising to her feet. “Wait here.”
It must have been true what she said about time for she scarcely seemed to have left the room for a minute before returning. Her outfit was different though, and even her hairstyle was slightly altered. I suspected that what had been moments for me had been days for her.
“Well?” I asked.
“We agree with a caveat. As much fate-binding as we intend will create a powerful resonance. We wish to use that to do something ever so bad, and very much not your business. It will conjure a protector resistant to our magic, but not a more physical approach,” Sara said.
“Bleed a bit to help cement the relationship,” I said.
“Something like that,” Sara said.
I didn’t understand exactly what I was agreeing to, but then again, when did I ever know?
“Done,” I said.
“But first, the more pleasurable bit of this little alliance,” Sara said, stepping forward and pressing a kiss to my lips.
The Witches must have taken their alliance seriously. From my perspective I spent a month there subject to their hospitality. A month of faces and bodies that blurred together. After Sara, there were others, and with each one a faint magical resonance grew between myself and with every subsequent witch. I’d bound myself tightly to Elsora’s brand of darkness, and now I had tied myself just as tightly to the Witches.
Chapter 15
Sara returned to inform me that we were done with the binding. I didn’t need her to tell me that. It was strange the connection that existed between them all. Although we had never talked about her history of her powers I knew that she was by far the strongest at curses they’d ever seen. Her rise to power had partly been due to her intelligence—and the ability to subtly sabotage everyone that got in her way.
I could feel them all around me. If I concentrated enough I’d be able to count every witch in the place.
“It won’t be quite so overwhelming when we’re on different worlds,” Sara said.
“It’s something you’re familiar with?” I asked.
“Not to this extent. We sometimes bind ourselves as individuals to a guardian, but as a collective this is new,” Sara said.
“I’m surprised.”
Sara took my arm and hooked it in hers, a surprisingly carefree and intimate gesture. “We saw your fate. We saw the world you are building. It is a world where monsters don’t have to hide what they truly are.”
Sara led the way to a dining hall with a large table. My friends were having a meal.
“That was quick,” Yve said, Tiger sitting beside her still in cat form.
“How long has it been for them?” I asked Sara.
“A few minutes only,” Sara said.
Time manipulation without having to jump to different worlds was really pretty cool, i
f confusing.
“We’ve made new friends. We just need to do a little bit of fighting before we go,” I said.
“I’m always up for killing,” Ashley said brightly.
“In a fight or do you enjoy human sacrifice?” Sara asked.
“I’ve never done a human sacrifice. But I’d like to try it,” Ashley said.
At least she couldn’t be accused of not keeping an open mind.
“Maybe another day,” I said.
“Stop by any time,” Sara said.
A shared love of murder and a time-warped orgy was all it took to bring people together. Who knew?
Sara led us to a ritual chamber where three witches were deeply chanting. The floor was slick with blood and a tangle of bodies in one corner explained the source.
“You don’t leave them in the ritual circle?” I asked. It seemed an odd question, but I just had to wonder who would—in the middle of things—bother to get up and move the bodies. Was that why there were apprentices?
“Don’t be absurd. They get in the way and disrupt the flows of energy,” Sara said, and then continued, “You’ll want to get ready. It should be any moment now.”
I slipped on my glasses of Game Sight and drew Intemperance.
The ceiling began to glow, jagged cracks appearing in it and a pure white light pouring out. A figure dropped from above. She was as beautiful as the witches in her own way and clad in white plate-mail. A sword in her hand flickered with holy fire.
I checked her stats.
Mali: Avatar of Justice
Mali hails from a plane of great champions of good. While all from her world contain some trace of angelic blood, in her it runs particularly strong. Wielding the holy sword Temperance she has brought an end to many who do wrong. Completely immune to all forms of magic and mind-control, and possessing super human strength and endurance, she is a potent adversary.
Great. It was me, sort of, if I were a girl. I didn’t understand exactly how echoes worked, but I couldn’t escape the similarities. Her blade was even named the opposite of mine and her name had all the same letters. Did this mean that I symbolized injustice?
“You will stop what you are doing this instant. The people of Dekali do not deserve to have such horrors visited upon them,” Mali said.
“Hi,” I said. Mali’s gaze slipped to mine and the flaming sword in my hand. Her eyes narrowed.
“What is this? Who are you? What monstrous mockery?” Mali said.
“So you see it too,” I said. My companions looked confused, but they couldn’t see prompts.
“This is Mali and her sword Temperance. It is like, girl-opposite me,” I told them.
“Where did she get the sword?” Yve asked.
“I took it from a great and terrible villain, and purified it in the fires of light. How do you know my name and how did you come to possess your own dread sword?” Mali asked.
“I’m Liam. I got mine after killing some farmboy too busy reincarnating as a great hero. I then corrupted it in the blood of a Goddess of passion and lust,” I said.
“That would be me,” Yve said with a sunny smile.
That was enough for Mali, who plunged her sword into the floor. A massive bloom of light filled the room. “Wicked, withdraw!”
Torment of the Wicked
The blast sent the witches tumbling. Ashley and me, too. It was like trying to stand in the face of a hurricane, the force driving us back against the wall and pinning us there.
Yve and Walt were unaffected, both standing still.
Yve said, “We’re not actually all that wicked. Evil Goddess days kind of behind me. I think I’m swinging chaotic neutral these days, if you’re the sort to measure these things. You look like you are.”
Walt said, “Death is neutral and so am I.”
“Then you’ll step aside and let me finish my duty,” Mali said.
Death-hand
Walt lashed out with his hand glowing a spectral blue. The punch sent Mali flying through the air. She proved more nimble than me, executing a midair flip to land on her feet with her sword held before her.
“You’ll regret that,” Mali said, and charged.
Walt fended off blow after blow with the Death-hand while Yve tried to blast Mali with fire darts. Each of the spells flickered away as they hit her, like her body was absorbing them.
I drew Intemperance. If she was creating this power, I must have it within me to fight against it. By degrees I felt darkness surge in my muscles and I pushed away from the wall.
Intemperance met Temperance, sparks filling the air each time the swords clashed. It was like an electrical current was surging up my arms, it hurt when our swords connected.
Ashley howled and green energy flickered around her with an aura of energy, and suddenly she was free as well and drawing her daggers.
“New trick?” I asked.
“I’ve killed a few Gods lately. It isn’t any surprise I’m leveling up,” Ashley asked.
It was actually. While the Crucible Shard and those with classes from it had gotten stronger after it became the Twelfth Moon, I hadn’t yet seen her pull off anything like this on her own. It worried me, but I didn’t have time to be worried.
“You don’t have to die,” I told Mali.
“You don’t have to fight me. What they do here is terrible. Sickening. You seem to be some mirror of me, whatever depths you have fallen into you cannot be on their side,” Mali said.
I had no doubts the witches were up to no good. Through my connection with them I could sense the atrocities that happened in this palace daily. They really were the very worst of monsters in a very beautiful package. They were also, now, eternal and fast friends.
I went high with Intemperance even as Ashley rolled low and drove her daggers into Mali’s knees. She screamed and dropped to the ground, Temperance skittering across the floor.
I raised my sword to finish things, but Sara stepped up and rested her hand upon my arm, stopping me.
“We’d prefer her alive, if you don’t mind,” Sara said.
“Whatever for?” I asked.
“Nothing decent. We’d not expected her to be some variation of you. If we had, we’d have reconsidered recruiting you for this fight,” Sara said.
I believed her. There was no reason for her to start lying to me now.
“I didn’t even know such an aspect of me existed.”
“If we might borrow your sword, we can corrupt hers and add to its power. That is, if your one-time Goddess is willing to spill some more of her blood,” Sara said.
“It’s not divine any longer,” Yve said.
“Inconvenient, but we can work around that,” Sara said.
Like I was going to refuse a stronger weapon. I handed over Intemperance and claimed Temperance as well, even as they gagged and bound Mali.
It was a terrible failure of a mission for her and a rather successful one for me. Score one for the bad guys.
Chapter 16
When we returned to the castle we transformed Tiger back to himself, unharmed although not happy about the treatment he received at the hands of the Witches. Diamond had made her own return in that time and was at least able to calm him down from any thoughts of vengeance.
That left only one member who had yet to return, Cobalt. It was alarming considering that she was also the strongest among us. Hope was able to handle the transport and we left to investigate what had befallen Cobalt.
When we materialized it was on top of a pile of corpses. There were a lot of corpses stretching as far as the eye could see in all directions.
“What happened here?” Hope asked, appalled.
I recognized the work at once.
“This is your mom, kiddo,” Diamond said, kneeling down to inspect one of the bodies. “You’ll be able to do this yourself one of these days.”
“My mom isn’t a killer,” Hope said.
“They aren’t staying dead. Remember, each dawn they come back to life. I thi
nk in the local time it has been seven days since Cobalt would have come here. His clothing shows the marks of seven recent deaths,” Diamond said, rising back to her feet.
“So they keep dying and coming back, and she just keeps killing them again?” I asked.
“Looks that way,” Diamond said.
Infinite waves of murderous barbarians. Cobalt must be having a blast.
It was difficult to even move across the battlefield with the corpses everywhere, and if you did find a free patch of ground it was slick with blood and innards. The stench was horrible.
I tried to make some sense of how the bodies lay. Pick up some clue as to where she might have gone, but I was finding nothing. Diamond gestured and an owl made of diamonds appeared. Flapping wings of carved gems it flew into the sky.
“So, do you pick your magical color?” I asked.
“You mean, like I get blue or white or sparkles?” Diamond asked.
“Yeah. Everyone seems to be different. Even things like using the Rights. When Malachite transports everyone she has that green flash,” I said.
“We don’t pick it. It’s based on our personality. You’ll sometimes see it change over time. It’s always a good idea to be alert, if you see any sudden changes,” Diamond said.
“Ashley has some weird, glowing green magic aura thing now,” I said.
“I’m right here. I can hear you,” Ashley said.
“I’ve warned you. You still haven’t done anything about it and that is on you. I’m here to save you from making a terrible mistake, not her,” Diamond said.
“Fuck you too,” Ashley said.
The owl returned and landed on Diamond’s shoulders, leaning in to her ear before exploding into a puff of brightly colored sparkles.
Whatever the bird had to say it must have been informative. Diamond set off at a fast pace in a new direction.
“Is Mom okay?” Hope asked.
“Yeah. I know what is going on now. This is good, she’ll be living this one down for awhile,” Cobalt said.
It took us perhaps half an hour of climbing over corpses to come to a rise. Cobalt was surrounded by an army of fur-wearing tribesman. I didn’t see a one without bloodstains on their armor. Cobalt wasn’t wearing a stitch—it wasn’t the first time I’d seen her naked and taking on an army. I didn’t think it was intentional this time around. A week solid of endless combat had completely destroyed her gear. I wondered if she even needed it at this point. The caked-on, dried blood could be a second skin.