“Louder, my dear,” Aeon calmly spoke. “I can’t hear you.”
“Aeon is my queen,” Nuci said before shakily breathing as the chronofly caressed her cheek. “Aeon is my queen. Aeon is my queen.”
“Good girl. You love your queen, don’t you?”
“Yes,” Nuci insisted nodding. “I love Aeon. I live to serve her. I love serving my queen. I love her so much. I live to make her happy.”
“You don’t wish to defy your queen again, do you?”
“No!” Nuci screamed as she turned and quickly grabbed Aeon’s hips. “I swear I won’t! Never again! I’ll never defy you again, my queen! Please believe me! I swear I won’t challenge you ever again!”
Aeon laughed as the alurane buried her face in her stomach while her tendrils curled up in the air nearby, the Dark Queen’s glowing eyes watching as the woman desperately pleaded for mercy while holding onto her with trembling hands.
“That’s a good girl,” Aeon cooed while gently brushing the alurane’s hair.
“I’m a good girl!” Nuci said nodding. “I won’t be bad again! I swear! Please believe me, my queen! I’ll always be a good girl for you!”
“Oh I’m sure you will,” Aeon laughed. She lifted Nuci’s gaze up to her own and observed the soulless look inside the alurane’s eyes. “You were such a bad girl before but now I can truly see your obedience showing.”
“I’ll always obey you,” Nuci implored. “I swear I will. I live to obey you, Aeon.”
“That’s a good girl. There isn’t any defiance left in you, is there? And to think all it took was twelve hours’ worth of time in this suspended moment of tearing you apart and putting you back together again to mold you into a proper slave for me. I was impressed you resisted for so long, but in the end you learned your place, didn’t you?”
“I’m a proper slave,” Nuci agreed nodding. “I’m yours to do with as you see fit. Whatever you want of me you shall have, my queen. Anything you ask. I’ll be anything you want me to be.”
“Such a good girl,” Aeon sweetly said while petting the alurane’s head. She glanced around then smirked down at Nuci who had gently taken hold of her hand and was kissing it repeatedly. “Now then, it’s about time we get a move on, don’t you think?”
“A move on?” Nuci curiously asked her. “What are going to do, my queen?”
“Why, we’re going to get ready for the party of course,” Aeon chuckled. “And we’ve got some preparations to make. I trust you’ll be a good girl and help me with getting everything set up, won’t you?”
“Of course I will,” Nuci implored hugging her again. “I’ll do anything you ask. I’m a good girl for you. What would you have me do?”
“We have a few changes to make in the timestream.”
“What?” Nuci gasped. “But, my queen! You’ll hurt yourself changing the fates of others!”
“Calm yourself,” Aeon said looking off to the side with a distant gaze. “A few headaches and possibly throwing up now and again will be worth it in the end.”
“Why would you wish to harm yourself?” Nuci worried. “Please, my queen. Don’t do such a thing, I beg of you.”
“As I said it will be worth it in the end,” Aeon told her with a smirk. “You see while I was lying on the ground at your feet after you tried to kill me I saw-”
“I’m sorry, my queen!” Nuci sobbed while burying her face in the chronofly’s dress. “I didn’t want to hurt you, I swear! Please forgive me for my transgressions! Oh god, I’m such a horrible girl! I’m so sorry for everything I did!”
“Shut up!” Aeon snapped, pushing the alurane away and scowling at the weeping woman. “Perhaps I overdid it a bit with your training, you’re a little too much of a bitch now.”
“I’m sorry,” Nuci whimpered, hanging her head low and glancing up at Aeon with watery eyes. “I really am. I’ll try to be better for you.”
“Whatever,” Aeon scoffed. “Better to have you licking my feet than opposing my will.”
“Do you want me to lick your feet?” Nuci eagerly asked while quickly lunging down for Aeon’s shoes. “I’ll kiss and suck every toe you have with extreme gratitude, my queen.”
“Knock it off!” Aeon yelled, giving a swift kick that destroyed the alurane’s head into a bloody mess across the ground. She growled in frustration then slowly took a few breaths while Nuci’s body twitched a bit at her feet.
“Definitely overdid her training,” she muttered. “Oh well. This is still a far better arrangement than before with her.”
She snapped her fingers and reversed time, watching with a dull expression as Nuci reformed again before the alurane jumped with a gasp and quickly started apologizing again with tears in her eyes.
“I’m so sorry, my queen! I just wanted to please you! I didn’t mean to upset you, I swear! What can I do to make up for my horrible mistake? I’ll do anything you-”
“Shut up!” Aeon shouted. Nuci hopped with a squeak and held both hands over her mouth while the chronofly crossed her arms with a slightly twitching scowl. “Now, I’m going to tell you exactly what to do, and you’re going to do exactly as I say, got it?”
“Yes, my queen,” Nuci said from behind her hands. “Um… if I may ask, are you sure you wish to hurt yourself with changing the fates? I don’t want to see you suffering from it being altered.”
“Are you questioning my decision?”
“No!” Nuci cried out shaking her head. “I won’t question you! I promise! Whatever you ask of me I’ll do it! I trust you with my life!”
“Good,” Aeon said glancing away. “Now listen carefully to what I need you to do. We have to make sure future events happen how I say they should. With the proper alterations my future will be brighter than ever.”
“Anything you ask of me, my queen,” Nuci promised with a bow. Aeon chuckled at the alurane, seeing the empty look behind the woman’s eyes as she smiled lovingly at her. The chronofly stepped off the patch of flowers and vines while glancing down to it then smirked at Nuci with a raised eyebrow. The alurane looked down to the flora bedding then nodded at Aeon with a shaky smile and weak giggle.
“We are helping!” one of the desuwraiths cheered as she and her sister dug themselves down into deep holes. They peeked over the openings while standing in the narrow dugouts and giggled amongst each other, each of them winking at one another while anxiously rubbing all their hands together near their waists.
“This is such a smart idea!”
“I know, now when we turn invisible there’s no way anyone will see us coming for them!”
“Told you my idea was good,” the third smugly retorted.
“Hey, this was my idea!”
“No it wasn’t, it was mine!”
“You’re both so stupid, this was my idea.”
“No it wasn’t! And you’re the stupid one!”
“You’re both stupid, this was all my idea!”
“It was my idea, stupid!”
The three girls bickered in circles before noticing the patrolling ant girls were all gathered near Nuci. The ones near the cavern entrance were watching the scene curiously as those beside the alurane were squeaking again and again at something.
“Hey, what’s going on?” one of the sisters asked.
“Nuci? Is everything alright? Nuci?”
“What did we miss this time?” the third whined. All three girls scrambled out of their holes and rushed over to the crowd of ant girls. They saw the diggers exchanging puzzled looks with each other then noticed Nuci smiling gently down at where a large cluster of vines and colorful flowers were now growing and piled up where the deathbed of the chronofly was.
“Nuci?”
“What’s going on?”
“What happened to the Dark Queen?”
“Nothing, girls,” Nuci said, her eyes never moving while staring at the mound of flora with an empty gaze. “I decided to prepare a proper sleeping bed for the Dark Queen before burying her. I wrapped her bod
y up in the nicest flowers and roots I could muster. This looks lovely, don’t you think?”
“Um, I guess it does.”
“There’s lots of pretty flowers there now.”
“It looks beautiful, Nuci. I really like it.”
“Thank you, girls,” Nuci gently replied. She tilted her head one way then another while everyone watched her, all of them seeing the distant look she had before the alurane smiled kindly at the nearby ant girls.
“Listen to me, everyone. I’m going to bury the Dark Queen here along with the entrance to the city. You should leave now, I don’t want you getting hurt.”
“Wait, what?” one of the desuwraiths asked.
“You’re going to bury her and the entrance?”
“Right now?”
“Yes,” Nuci said as the cave started rumbling. Everyone looked around to seeing the alurane’s roots ripping out from the walls and ceiling, rocks and dirt dropping down in increasing amounts as Nuci’s many subterranean limbs tore apart the solid foundations.
“I must give her a proper burial,” Nuci continued with a hollow smile. “And I might as well seal away this cave too. After all nobody is going to be traveling down to the City of Eden anymore. This whole place should just be buried and forgotten, it’s for the best. You all should go now, you don’t want to be crushed when the cave collapses.”
The ant girls jumped and started squeaking while running around in a panic, all of them watching boulders and large chunks of rock dropping down around the area while Nuci giggled with arms held out as she welcomed the cave-in.
“Wait, what should we do?” one of the desuwraiths asked.
“Where will you go next?”
“Can we go with you?”
“I’m sorry, girls,” Nuci remorsefully told them with the same empty smile. “But I need some time alone to cope with my loss. I hope you understand. Now that I’m no longer needed as a guardian I must find a new purpose in life. Yes… a new purpose. You girls are free to go wherever you want, it doesn’t matter to me.”
“But we want to stay with you,” one of them pleaded while a large rock fell onto her head and broke apart, doing nothing to even draw the desuwraith’s attention.
“Can’t we go with you?”
“Pretty please?” the third begged as two more rocks fell on her with hard and unnoticed impacts.
“I’m sorry, but not this time,” Nuci said turning away. “Please leave before you are buried here. Go out into the world and live your lives, girls. Don’t worry about me. I’ll be just fine.”
“Are you sure?” the three sisters asked while debris crashed onto them without them noticing.
“Yes, I’m sure,” Nuci promised with a dazed smile they couldn’t see. “I’m going to be just fine. Don’t worry about me. Please go and be happy, girls. Be happy.”
“Well… okay?” the sisters unsurely said, exchanging puzzled looks before smiling worriedly at the alurane. The ant girls in the room ran about squeaking loudly before rushing out of the cave as it started to collapse with a loud tremor. The desuwraith sisters ran over to the entrance then looked back to see Nuci gently waving a hand while facing away from them still.
“Take care of yourself, Nuci.”
“We hope to see you again.”
“We’ll always be your best friends, Nuci.”
“Thank you, girls,” Nuci said with a twitching smile. “I appreciate that. Run along now. Be good girls.”
“We will,” the desuwraiths promised with bows. They ran out of the room as more debris crashed down from above, large boulders slamming into the ground and also blocking the tunnel out of the chamber. Nuci giggled awkwardly and twitched a few times before lowering her head with a smile that seemed strained for her.
“Be good… girls. I’m going to be a good girl too. I’m a very good girl. A very good girl… for my queen. My beautiful and generous queen. Ha. Haha. Hahahaha! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!”
The alurane laughed wildly with an awkward smile on her face, a few tears dropping from her cheeks before she started crying and tucking herself into a ball in her flower.
“I’m a good girl! I’m a good girl! I’m a good girl!” she sobbed loudly. “I love you, my queen! I’ll be a good girl for you! Forever and ever! Just please don’t punish me again!”
Nuci screamed and shook her head as she curled up in her flower, the large petals slowly closing around her before the bud began to shrink and retreat into the ground. The alurane vanished into the dirt before the cave collapsed from above, the massive pile of debris and rocks filling the cavern and burying both the steel platform in the chamber and the mound of flowers and vines that bloomed peacefully where the chronofly once lay.
Where the chronofly lay no longer.
*****
Sleeping quietly in her shackles Mika remained slumped against the wall of her prison chamber along with a few other ant girls. Empty plates and cups were lying about near the prisoners from the other night while the steel door remained locked from the outside with two ant girls standing guard in the tunnel. Mika groaned softly before slowly opening her eye, an empty gaze being aimed down at the ground as she continued to feel heartache over her growing list of dire mistakes she had made.
“Max,” she breathed out. “I hope you’re alright. I hope you’re doing okay. I hope… I can see you again someday.”
She whimpered and lowered her head while closing her eye, feeling her chest aching further from the painful truth while she weakly yanked on her shackles.
“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry for everything. I never meant to hurt you. I never meant to put you in danger. I just… I just…”
Looking around at where she was then up at the ceiling she softly cried with tears welling up in her eye.
“I’m a horrible sister. I raped my own brother, and then nearly damned the world to hide my shameful secret. Milly, Mae, I’m sorry. I know I promised to protect him, but… I only ended up risking his life in my stupidity. I’m not fit to be his guardian. I’m not even fit to be his sister. I’m just a vile monster myself. I always have been… I just never wanted to see it.”
“Aw, poor Mika Harollson,” Aeon gently cooed.
Mika blinked before slowly looking forward, her eye widening along with her mouth as she saw the chronofly standing before her with crossed arms and a sympathetic smile on her face.
“You poor thing,” Aeon mocked. “My, how far you’ve fallen. Such a shame. The great Mika Harollson, feared monster hunter of Koskaysil, reduced to a blithering maggot not fit to even slither amongst the real monsters of this world by her own hand. What a waste of a life.”
“Aeon,” Mika breathed out in terror. “You… you can’t be…”
“Oh, but I am,” Aeon assured as she slowly knelt down before the human, reaching out and holding her cheek with a menacing smile and unsettling touch. “Sorry, but you can’t slay this monster so easily. Don’t look so shocked though. You didn’t really think I could be gotten rid of just like that, did you?”
“Nuci killed you,” Mika shivered. “They said she killed you.”
“She tried, and she failed. You have to give her credit for trying though, right? I mean it was her job as my guardian. Too bad she underestimated me. Just like a foolish monster hunter I know.”
Mika trembled in fright as the chronofly caressed her cheek then glanced around and saw the ant girls remaining perfectly still in their shackles, the prisoners not moving in the slightest while silence filled the room.
“Don’t worry,” Aeon chuckled. “I stopped time before you blabbed out loud about molesting your little brother. After all I figured you didn’t want anyone else to know about your shameful secret, especially since you went to such extreme lengths to try and keep it covered up. They can’t hear us, it’s just you and me in this suspended moment of time. Nobody could hear you even if you screamed murder right now.”
Mika shakily looked back to see Aeon glaring at her with glowing eyes and a devilish sm
ile.
“Now then, what to do with you?” Aeon playfully mused. She held the human’s cheek and ran her other hand slowly down the woman’s body, caressing her breast and giving it a light squeeze before moving down to her crotch. Mika trembled and pressed further back against the wall as the Dark Queen chuckled at seeing her fear.
“You did try to kill me,” Aeon recalled with a slight bite. “That wasn’t very nice. But then again you did free me as well. I wouldn’t be standing outside of my tomb if it wasn’t for you. That was a nice thing you did. Oh, what ever should I do to you, Mika Harollson? There’s so many options for me.”
Aeon murmured a few times then slowly nodded as she held the human’s hair, her other hand gripping Mika’s crotch and causing the human to jump with a nervous tremble.
“I know,” Aeon teased. “I think I know exactly what to do with you.”
Mika then gasped hoarsely as the sound of flesh being torn was heard. The human shrieked and looked down in horror at seeing what Aeon was pulling out of her between her legs, something that the chronofly glanced down to with a laugh before smiling wickedly at the screaming woman.
“I think I’ll remind you what happens when someone defies their queen,” Aeon taunted before yanking Mika’s womanhood right out of her. The human screamed in sheer agony, her voice echoing throughout the chamber and outside the door where the guards remained in place without moving an inch.
“Oh, quit being so dramatic,” Aeon mocked. She then shoved the gore into Mika’s open mouth and forced it down her throat, the choking human staring in fright at the chronofly’s glaring smile while her legs kicked about to the sides. “Not like anyone could hear you. It’s just you and me in this little moment of time. Nobody can hear you. Nobody can help you. We’re going to spend a lot of time together now, just you and your queen. Now shut up and eat it! What’s wrong? You should be grateful I’m feeding this to you! Especially since it’s your prized womb that you dreamed of your beloved brother pumping his seed into! Hahahahaha!”
Mika slowly blacked out as she gagged on her own innards, her hands clenching above her shackles before slowly loosening as she kicked less and less. Before she could lose consciousness Aeon shoved the gore down her throat and tore it open, spilling blood out down her neck onto her shirt before she pulled her hand out.
Chronicles of Eden - Act XI Page 47