Sable

by Tamryn Tamer

  “Based on new information that’s not the worst of it,” Owl said approaching from the city. “It seems they’re…”

  “Owl,” Raven glanced at Ariel.

  “Sorry,” Owl approached Raven.

  “No,” Ariel stomped at the two conspirators. The only thing worse than knowing what was happening to Jinx was closing her eyes and ears to it. “I am leading an army. I want to hear it.”

  “Ariel,” Raven said calmly. “There’s no reason for you…”

  “I want to hear it!” Ariel yelled angrily.

  “Just spit it out,” Terra agreed. “We don’t have time to pussyfoot around it.”

  “Raven,” Owl looked to the short dark elf for confirmation. She reluctantly nodded. “Very well. The spectral cat was dragged through the city, pelted with bottles and fruit, and is currently suspended by a chain in Loki’s manor. Everybody from Phoenix is drinking and celebrating while throwing bottles at her. There have also been rumors that…”

  “That’s enough,” Raven interrupted. She and several others were staring at Ariel. She knew why they were looking, she could feel it again. As soon as he described the scene she was flooded with that poisonous hatred and anger. She didn’t need a mirror to know what had happened.

  “Cynthia,” Ariel looked to her advisor who’d dropped to her knee. She continued to look around and the entire fairy army had dropped to their knee. She could feel the vile wrath devouring her insides, “I want more.”

  “More?” Cynthia asked confused as the others looked on. “What do you mean?”

  “It’s not enough to just get her back,” Ariel looked down at Cynthia, completely giving in to wrath as she imagined her best friend being beaten and humiliated. “I want them to lose everything. Turn their city to ash. Gather up inferno potions and ensure our troops are in position over the city. They should be ready for my command.”

  “Interesting,” Owl nodded at Ariel. He looked toward a small cluster of Endgame mages. “I want you all to enter the city. Place yourself in positions beneath the fairies. You will use wind magic to feed the flames and manipulate the fire to spread them. You will go as quickly as possible while avoiding engagement.”

  Owl’s mage unit and their familiars rushed off toward the city without question. He also talked to an officer indicating for them to gather any inferno potions from their soldiers and disperse them amongst the fairies.

  “What’s going on?” Raven asked Owl. “You sound like you have a plan.”

  “Yes, thanks to the fairy queen,” Owl tried not to smile. “We are looking at this through the wrong lens. We don’t need to fight on a battlefield. We can place our queens and knights wherever we want before the game even begins. Here we are assembling in a field, but what is keeping us from entering the city?”

  “It’s a nice thought but the emissary will warn them and we’ll be surrounded before the battle begins,” Raven said.

  “Unless,” Owl stared at Ariel. “Am I right in assuming you can start the battle whenever you wish?”

  “Yes,” Ariel answered while thinking of the city up in flames. As soon as her army was in position, she intended to unleash hell on that city. “I need to send the emissary, but I only intend to give them five minutes.”

  “That’s what I thought,” Owl nodded and turned to Raven and the others. “Each time a city was sieged the time limit was different. While some set it for twenty-four hours, others set it for eight. It’s fungible.”

  “Shit,” Terra started at Ariel in a way she hadn’t before. Ariel was used to people looking at her with pity or affection, but never with respect. “We’re really doing this?”

  “For the queen!” the first unit of fairies flew off toward the city carrying their payloads. As more received their potions, they followed while hiding themselves in illusions and spreading themselves out above the city.

  “Hey!” An officer from Tiamat rushed the group. “Jericho just came through the portal and is headed toward Loki’s manor.”

  “Is anybody with him?” Freya asked worriedly.

  “Uh,” the officer looked at the beautiful silver-haired woman. “Four women, an angel, and some creepy red-eyed woman.”

  “They’re okay!” Freya said turning to Mirage and Ariel excitedly. “I’m going to go join my pack if that’s okay.”

  “It’s fine,” Mirage nodded as Freya darted off toward the city.

  “Cynthia,” Ariel glanced at the kneeling dark fairy. She walked toward her and placed her hand on her head. “I, Queen Ariella Pepperspring, hereby order you to rescue Jinx by any means necessary.”

  “Yes, my queen,” Cynthia rose to her feet and pounded her hand on her heart. “I will not fail.”

  “I know,” Ariel said sending her royal advisor off. She knew as long as Jinx was a prisoner her master’s hands would be tied. If Cynthia could rescue her, nothing would hold her master back.

  Ariel looked around as Owl, Raven, and various officers coordinated units. Her fairy army had left for the skies leaving her alone with Mirage, Mai, Terra, and the rest of Sin.

  “Mai,” Mirage looked at the stoic duelist. “You will protect Ariel. Understand?”

  “Yes,” Mai answered coldly. “I understand.”

  “Where are you going?” Terra asked as Mirage prepped to vanish.

  “To keep a promise,” Mirage said with a dark malevolence that sent a chill up Ariel’s spine. She vanished in a blink.

  “Any idea what that means?” Terra asked Ariel who was just as confused as she was.

  “Alright,” Terra said looking at her troops.

  “Sorry I’m late!” Carrot said approaching. She looked around the battlefield which was now almost entirely empty as the various players rushed to the city to take positions. “Not a great showing, huh?”

  “Most of them are in the city,” Terra said.

  “Let’s start heading to the gate,” Ariel said floating toward the wall as the others followed behind. Players rushed past them as they approached the front gates. Every inch closer to the dark walls of Kar Mograth the angrier she felt. She was going to hold onto that anger.

  “Go,” Ariel told her herald as they arrived at the front gate. She stood on the bridge with Terra, Mai, and the others. “They have five minutes to hand over Jinx and Loki. Or we attack.”

  “Five minutes,” Carrot looked around for confirmation. “It’s going to take them five minutes to reach Loki’s manor. Shouldn’t you give them ten?”

  “I have no intention of forgiving them,” Ariel looked at the red-haired beast girl. “I intend to burn this city to the ground. But that is nothing compared to what my master is going to do to them.”

  “You know Ariel,” Terra patted her head. “I kind of prefer it when you just sit around talking to plants.”

  “I do too,” Ariel said as the hate gnawed at her insides.

  Chapter 9

  A Cowards Death

  As soon as the words left the Phoenix messenger’s mouth a horn resounded signifying the start of the siege. A black scythe hooked between the messenger’s legs and cut him in half revealing Cynthia. She entered the room in a whirlwind of spins and twists shredding every person she came in contact with.

  “What are you waiting for!” Freya roared while leaping over the other wolves and cleaving the skull of a drunk member of Phoenix. “They’re drunk and unarmed!”

  The other four wolves fell into position beside Freya as she parried clumsy blows from drunkards. Immediately afterward they’d either be sliced in half by a claymore or an axe or impaled by a spear or arrows. They wolves pushed forward into the room opening up the floor beneath Jinx.

  “Get them!” Loki screamed as several rangers took out their bows and took aim at various members of the group.

  “She’s mine!” Cynthia said as she spun like a top through a group of players. A storm of daggers flew in every direction from the spinning fairy striking any enemy attempting to approach her. Those that did reach striking dist
ance fell to the ground in a pile of flesh and blood like they’d been thrown in a meat shredder. She leaped upward and slashed the chain holding Jinx and a moment later she was rushing past Jericho with Jinx in hand.

  “Master!” Theia dashed in front of Jericho raised her wings and created a barrier of light deflecting a dozen arrows meant for him. “Pay attention! Jinx is safe!”

  “Right,” Jericho grinned vindictively as he looked at Loki trying to organize his drunken troops. While some were quick to arm themselves, others were lambs to the slaughter as the wolves tore through them. Cynthia made the right call, now that Jinx was gone, Jericho didn’t need to worry about holding back. “On me!”

  “Yes master,” Freya said as she and the other wolves collapsed on the mage.

  He would have preferred to let her and the others fight but their spirits looked like it might go out like a candle if she continued. She and the others had fought enough for the day, it was his turn.

  “Theia, behind me,” Jericho said stepping in front of the entire group. “Protect everybody.”

  “Yes master,” Theia said raising her wings to create a wall protecting the familiars from oncoming arrows.

  Jericho deftly swatted them away with wind or turned them to ash with fire. His fury was so intense his elemental pathways would take months to empty. All he needed to do was picture his precious familiar hanging from the ceiling like some trophy. It wasn’t enough to kill Loki, he intended to destroy Phoenix.

  “You brought this on yourself,” Jericho looked at the furious ranger with disgust as over fifty soldiers surrounded him and more flooded in. He instantaneously filled the room with cold and nobody reacted.

  “Oh?” Loki laughed while releasing several arrows at Jericho. “What’s wrong? Magic doesn’t work? Too bad. I guess after all that we’ll just have to take your other familiars. I bet that angel can’t transform so we’ll be sure to have fun with her.”

  “Master,” Theia said nervously. “We should retreat. We already have…”

  “No,” Jericho said coldly. “Sable. How do I use dark magic?”

  “I told you before,” Sable answered angrily. “You cannot use the dark.”

  “Goddammit,” Jericho shoved back several enemies with walls of stone and ice as he tore apart the main hall of the manor. “If you can’t use dark magic, then how do you use it?”

  “I don’t!” Sable snapped back angrily. “The dark uses me!”

  “Shit,” Jericho said creating a shell of ice around himself as the surrounding soldiers hacked away at it.

  Sable was the first familiar he met who didn’t unlock a type of magic because she couldn’t unlock an open door. She was basically saying he had it in him the whole time like some sappy sports movie. She compared it to controlling god. It was absurd!

  Then it clicked, it was absurd. Of course, he couldn’t use darkness. How do you control nothingness? It’s already there. Everything else is just kind of on top of it. The darkness wasn’t in him the whole time, everybody exists on top of the darkness.

  Her statements suddenly started to make sense and then he noticed it. It wasn’t anything new, or strange. It was something that was just always there in his mind, a little spot of nothing. Like a missing pixel on a television.

  He’d probably even noticed it before but his mind ignored it. After all, it wasn’t anything, it was literally nothing. The things surrounding it were something. His hopes, his dreams, his fears, his love, his hate, his heart, his lungs, his body, his spirit. But the spot was none of those things.

  “Master?” Theia said as an enormous hammer shattered the top of his frozen barrier. “Should we…”

  “Shh,” Jericho held his hand back ignoring her as the ice barrier began to crumble. The darkness was trying to hide again, or was everything else trying to hide the darkness? It was like thinking of nothing, as soon as you realized you were thinking of nothing, it vanished.

  He focused on the spot, refusing to shift to the surrounding things fighting to move it away from him. There was only the darkness, the empty tranquility of nothingness. The darkness began to spread, or more accurately, the life surrounding it began to recede. It was always the same size, all. He was just chipping away at what was covering it.

  “Master!” Freya roared as a giant hammer came down over his head.

  “Huh?” Jericho said lifting his hand, not to touch the hammer but to touch the space between. The air, the atoms, the light, the sound, he wiped it away and as soon as the hammer entered the nothingness, it vanished. He turned his sight on the man who’d swung the hammer and brought down has hand erasing his center as his sides fell to the ground.

  “What the fuck?” yelled a soldier backing off.

  Within moments life filled the dark void his hand had left, closing it. He suddenly had a new appreciation for Prince Niraxi. Not only had he maintained his focus on the dark, but he also managed to build hundreds of dark spears all over the place while maintaining his aura. He could barely keep the dark gate inside of him open to draw from.

  “Oh,” Jericho said curiously as the dark moved away from his finger. It was as if there were some small magnetic field keeping the darkness from actually touching him.

  “Kill him!” Loki screamed in a panic.

  “Do you understand now?” Sable asked pleasantly. He looked at her and she was smiling, clearly excited to see him using dark magic.

  “It’s like finger painting,” Jericho said mesmerized by the five trails of darkness his fingers left as he brushed the air. Two soldiers rushed him and their faces sliced open as if they’d run through five knives, “Or like erasing maybe? Or spreading some type of acid?”

  “Watercolor,” Sable walked out of Theia’s protective barrier and stood beside Jericho supportively. A golden staff appeared in her hand. She lifted it and summoned a black bubble. She began tapping it around like a child playing with a balloon. Then with a swirl of her finger, the ball flew around the room killing a dozen soldiers before returning to her. “You create a path and the darkness will flow through it like ink in water.”

  “Alright,” Jericho nodded while desperately trying to maintain his focus. He could feel the darkness slipping away from him like he was waking up from a dream. He looked at the soldiers left in the room and started to waive his hand like a brush. His dark calligraphy traveled the room killing nearly a dozen enemies before he lost sight of the dark and it vanished like a pen losing its ink. “Dammit, I lost it.”

  “Very good for a first attempt,” Sable said supportively as the remaining soldiers backed away from Jericho.

  “What are you idiots standing around for?” Loki yelled while firing off arrows. Jericho blocked them with a light barrier and fired back shots of condensed fire catching Loki in the shoulder. “Mother fucker!”

  “You should have never touched my familiar,” Jericho said coldly as he approached the group. He opened the earth beneath the feet of five soldiers and closed it, locking them in a pit before slowly heating the stone, transforming it into lava. The others tried to sprint past him to escape but the wolves swiftly executed them until only Loki remained.

  “You think I’m just going to take this,” Loki laughed maniacally. “This isn’t going to be over. It’s not like I can die. I’m going to come back and when you’re not looking, I’m going to catch another one of your familiars, and another, and next time I’ll be sure to take them somewhere we can have fun. You think you scare me? I’m the one people are scared of!”

  “Do I look scared?” Jericho asked full of hatred. He sent a spirit spear into Loki’s chest causing him to wince. Then another and another as if he were a spirit pin cushion. Loki tried to stumble away but Jericho lifted a stone tripping him. As soon as he landed the earth locked his hands and knees beneath the dirt. Jericho approached him from the front and knelt down in front of the furious guild master, “You should be happy I’m not like you Loki. If I were, I’d have you spit roasting on earth spikes.”


  “Fuck you?” Loki said spitting at Jericho. “You’re fucking pathetic. Fucking losing your shit over some pretend cunts.”

  “Yeah,” Jericho chuckled while knocking Loki in the jaw with a light infused punch dislocating it. “I’m probably pretty broken like that.”

  “Freya,” Jericho looked at the five spectral wolf women staring at Loki. “He’s all yours.”

  “Thank you,” Freya growled as the group of women approached Loki. Jericho walked away as he heard a series of strikes. It seemed the women had no interest in finishing things quickly. After some protracted whimpers, groans, and gurgles he heard the crash of Sirun’s axe.

  “So,” Sable stared at him. “Was I supposed to enjoy this?”

  “Sable,” Jericho sighed and rubbed the red-eyed woman’s head. “I’m not going to pretend like everything is good. I’m just betting that before the day is over, the good will outweigh the bad.”

  “Well so far you’re losing our bet,” Sable said grabbing his arm as they walked out the door. “The only thing you’ve shown me is torture and slaughter.” As they stepped outside, they looked around and the city was in flames as elite guards were being kited around by members of Tiamat and Endgame. “It seems I’ve spoken too soon. We can add destruction to that list.”

  “Boss!” Carrot rushed toward him with Terra in tow. “You’re alive!”

  “He’s a cockroach,” Terra said firing off several shots at an elite guard rushing toward them. “He doesn’t die. But we should probably get out of here. We’re destroying a lot of Phoenix homes and bases but we can’t crush the entire city.”

  “Speaking of which,” Jericho gestured at the city. “How are we attacking the city?”

  “Oh,” Terra laughed. “You’re going to love this. Apparently, since she’s a queen, Ariel can siege cities.”

  “Ariel planned this?” Jericho looked up to see fairies flying through dropping explosive concoctions as Kar Mograth archers attempted to shoot them down. “I’m impressed.”