by J D Franx
Using the back of her hands, Ember dried the moisture from her eyes and took a deep breath. “I miss him, Sephi. Death took him from me, but time hasn't taken my love. We lost so much under that mountain.”
The Queen laid her hand on Ember's shoulder with the softest of touches. "We did. The biggest were Kael and Luthian, but we need to start making up for it, especially tonight. If Emperor Mero sees that you are not here against your will, then he should stand down, and we can focus on the things Yrlissa has told us. Things of which you need to speak to her about. It has been eight months since we've returned to Drae'Kahn from the forest."
“I can't, Sephi. If she had told us earlier what she knew... what she was, God... we could have done things differently. Had Max and I known, we would have left Giddeon behind and traveled faster or jumped. If we had, Kael would still be alive. I'm not sure I even believe her anymore. It’s like she wanted him to die. And now… the Ancients are worshiped by everyone in Talohna. They created so much beauty. If they have truly returned, how can they be evil like she claims?”
"I agree with you, you know I do. She should have trusted in you and Max enough to be honest, especially after she found out you were Fae. But she didn't, and it is the past. The secrets she kept from you... it was for the right reasons. Time and experience will show you that sometimes you must do things that will hurt your loved ones, especially if it keeps them safe. Had Giddeon overheard or suspected, or had you been captured… The Dead Sisters were a lot closer than we thought—ahead of us and behind us. It was a no-win situation for her. There was no right call. I believe deep down you know that.”
“I disagree,” Ember said, shaking her head. “You don't tell a trusted friend one thing, and then keep your own agenda hidden. We had chances to leave Giddeon behind. We could have traveled faster or used her knowledge to realm jump to Kael. The choices were endless. It's like she didn't want us to catch up to him. Kael might still be alive, Sephi. I will never forgive her for that.”
Sephi sighed. “You are hurt because she kept it from you. That is normal, but we must work together in order to push on. She has knowledge and skills we need. You know her secrets now, and you know what is coming."
“If what she says is true.”
“Because of the library below us, we know that enough of what she said is true. And we must prepare for if the Sepulchre falls.”
"Fair enough, my Queen." Ember frowned as she bowed.
"Don't you dare," Sephi said, grabbing Ember's arm to interrupt the bow. "The Fae do not bow to kings and queens and what I just said to you is as a friend not a queen. Ultimately, Ember, you must decide whether you will forgive Yrlissa or not, but we still must work together toward our common goals.”
Ember nodded. With her heart lifted slightly, she gave Sephi a hug. The two women walked from the room and headed to the peace conclave between DormaSai and Ellorya with the hopes of averting what could become the start of a Talohna-wide world war.
She was ill at ease with the pending situation. The power-hungry emperor had been threatening a forced marriage. It was the last thing she needed to deal with, and she prayed her magic would be her strength. Ember quickly banished her worries aside when she noticed the palace’s guard-captain waiting for them at the bottom of the wide central staircase.
“Your Highness,” he said before bowing as Ember and the Queen stepped off the last stair.
Sephi motioned for him to straighten himself. “How may I help you, Captain?”
“I know you are on the way to the Conclave, but the guards at the castle gate apprehended a young woman trying to sneak into the castle. She is asking to see you.”
“We don’t have time for this tonight, Captain. Send her on her way, please.”
Ember could see the guard flinch as if unsure whether to push. True to her title, Sephi also caught it.
“Yes, Captain?” the Queen prompted.
“I am sorry, Your Highness. She says she knows Mistress Ember, that she has information you both will want... about Mistress Ember’s husband.”
Ember nodded slowly and tried to swallow the lump forming at the back of her throat. If she was shocked, Sephi hid it well. “Very well, Captain. The Conclave can wait for a few minutes. Take us to her.”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
“And Captain?” she added. “Next time, lead with that information, please.”
“Yes, of course. I am sorry, Your Highness.”
Bowing a second time, he led them from the castle to the inner bailey. As they grew closer to a group of guards surrounding a young woman in a heavy robe. she stood and lowered her hood. Ember’s heart plummeted into her stomach the moment she recognized her. Sephi was quick on her feet as she attacked the woman, forcing Ember to jump between them as both the Queen’s blue daggers flashed. The woman put her hands up when Sephi’s dagger came to a stop against her throat.
“You dare show your face here, you traitorous—” Ember placed a hand on Sephi’s shoulder to stop her.
“Easy, Seph,” she whispered, but her eyes locked on the woman. “Why are you here, Sister Nikki?”
“I am sorry,” Kyah said. “I had nowhere else to go.”
Ember shook her head. “You betrayed us and got Kael killed. Why would we help you?”
“And you can drop the Sister Nikki routine,” Sephi added. “The monastery in Corynth has never heard of you, which backs up what Yrlissa told Ember and Max about you and what happened with Kael in that mountain glade. If you want sanctuary here, then you had better start telling the truth and right now.”
“Fair enough.” Kyah nodded. “My name is N’Ikyah—Kyah. I was with Kael when he escaped from Arkum Zul. I was the Dead Healer charged with keeping him alive during his imprisonment there.”
“Bastard Dead Sister,” Sephi spat.
“No, I am not. I was a Dead Healer. It is why I escaped with him. But the real Sisters caught us again, just north of Cairnwood. I was just trying to stay alive.”
“That’s a lie,” Ember interjected. She realized the words coming out of Kyah’s mouth showed no signs of revealing the truth behind Kael’s death. “Cassie saw you take down an Orotaq Shaman and then help the Dead Sisters that night in the glade.”
“I did,” Kyah answered. “To save my own life, I did help them.”
“You know what?” Ember scoffed. “I don’t even care. What happened when Kael died? Where did you all disappear to?” she demanded. Her voice rose along with her anger as she took a step closer to Kyah. “Who killed Kael?! Was the assassin working for Giddeon?”
Kyah shook her head. “No. Giddeon didn’t kill Kael. When the assassin struck, he was just as surprised as the rest of us, and when Kasik caught the assassin, Giddeon severed the man's cruus as punishment. He died horribly.”
Ember was too shocked to say anything.
“Then what?” Sephi asked.
“The DragonKin Queen and a Fae Matriarch appeared out of nowhere and took us prisoner. They knew I had nothing to do with Kael’s death, so I was released almost immediately. Over the last year, I tried to go on with my life away from all this... and... I met someone. We had a child two weeks ago,” she said. Kyah carefully opened her cloak to reveal a baby completely covered, swaddled in a blanket, and secured around her waist. “But word got out that I had traveled with a DeathWizard, that I helped him. My child’s father died fighting them, so my child and I had time to escape from bounty hunters. I have nowhere to go. Please...”
“No,” Ember said.
Sephi stared at her as if unable to find the right words. “Ember,” she finally let out.
Ember stared at Kyah for several seconds. “I am sorry for what you’ve suffered,” she replied and turned to the Queen. “She can’t be trusted. She needs to go her own way, Sephi, and may the gods grant her exactly what she deserves.” Taking a deep breath, she looked to Kyah. “A darkness washes off you unlike anything I have ever seen. You will never be welcome anywhere I live. Be grateful
you have a child and we have a war to stop or you would not walk away so easily. I highly recommend you turn her away, Your Highness. Far away.”
Sephi nodded and pointed to the guards watching Kyah. “Escort her to the city limits and have two DeathDog scouts escort her to Fathoms’ Deep in Ellorya. Pay for her passage to anywhere she wants to go but be gods-damn sure she gets on a boat heading far away from the Southern Kingdoms.”
“Ember?” Kyah asked, stepping forward. One of the guards placed his hand firmly on her chest, stopping her from getting closer. “I truly am sorry about Kael. He was a good man.”
“He was,” Ember said. “He helped people every day on Earth, and every single day that he was here in Talohna. He helped you. When he needed help, there was no one there for him. You were there and could have helped him, but you chose not to. I wasn’t there, so I couldn't. We both have to live with that.”
“I do,” Kyah began.
Ember sighed. “I don’t believe you. Leave my sight before I ask the Queen to arrest you.” She walked away without another word.
“Are you all right?” the Queen asked, following her
“I’m fine.”
“You just asked me to exile a mother with a very newborn child from a country known for helping those no one else will. My country.”
Ember snorted. “I know, but trust me, Sephi. That woman makes me feel physically ill, as if my soul aches. More frightening is the fact that I can’t read her at all. The farther from us she is, the better off we will all be. I've made enough mistakes, allowing myself to be carried along with the events occurring here in this world like a mesmerized animal because the situation was so ridiculous I didn’t know what else to do. Never again. It may take me a while at times, but I do learn from my mistakes.”
“I understand and I trust your council, Ember. She is a confessed Dead Healer, and the Dead Sisters are not welcome in DormaSai, but your Fae empathy is going to eat you alive for this decision.”
“It already is.” Ember agreed. “But I’ll carry it if it means that vile woman is far away from us all.”
“If you are sure, and if you promise me you did not do that because of what Seifer told us in Dasal.”
Ember laughed, but there was no humor to the sound. “I hold no ill will toward her over the fact she might have been with Kael intimately. I may be a bitch for not helping a young mother, Sephi, but I’m not a monster.” Sephi nodded and walked in silence.
“At least not yet I’m not,” Ember muttered to herself, thinking back to the day Kael died. Ember could only shake her head in grief as she swallowed her anger. The ArchWizard had betrayed them all, rendering the group unconscious so his smaller group could do what? Ember had always believed Giddeon and those loyal to him had taken Kael's life. But it was beginning to look like Yrlissa’s agenda might be the true path forward—that Giddeon did not do it, but instead, Kael was killed to pave the return for the Ancients—a race Yrlissa called the Ri’Tek. She shook her head and shoved the thoughts aside.
She had more important things on her mind, like avoiding a war between two powerhouse countries and avoiding the offer of her hand in marriage to solve the problem.
NORTHERN BLACK CLIFFS
BLACK KASYM, NORTHERN TALOHNA
“That's unbelievable,” Princess Corleya breathed out as she stared out over the falls. “Beautiful and frightening.” Water cascaded into the Black Kasym and reacted to its volatile magic. Energy exploded far below them as purple and black lightning bolts danced and sparked through the mist.
“And more dangerous than all the Nine Hells combined for anyone with a heartbeat,” Damien Krass muttered as he worked his way through the treacherous current. Corleya frowned while the experienced pirate struggled with the helm in his attempt to keep their small ship clear of the currents’ ever-increasing pull toward the falls. One mistake would leave them at the mercy of the Kasym’s wicked magics or else strand them on the Orotaq-controlled Black Hollow peninsula.
Grunting as he fought the ship’s wheel, Damien continued complaining. “Be a miracle if we don’t run into an Orotaq slave trawler.”
“You had to say that, pirate?” Alia barked, looking over her shoulder from the bow. She pointed out to the open waters. A looming ship was anchored in the deep waters inside the Jaws of Ice and Rock less than a mile ahead of them.
As the last of the Black Kasym slid away behind their wake and they entered the bay between the WhiteWyrm Ocean and the Jaws, the massive ship dropped sail and the squeal of the anchor winch reached their ears.
“That is not a slave trawler.”
“Is that not a good thing?” Corleya asked. She grabbed two sail lines and planted her feet as she watched the massive ship with horror. It turned and barreled down on them. The front bow was decorated in the giant bones of a long dead creature and a monstrous set of shark jaws big enough to swallow their whole ship rode the prow.
“No!” Damien roared. “That is a hunting and war ship and here they come! Alia! They have no idea what those cannons will do! Let them get close before you touch it off! They won’t ram us and risk losing three slaves, but they will get close enough for us to see the wood grain on their side panels. Try and hit them at the water line and they might take on enough water for us to get away!”
“The bow of that ship is armored with bone!” Corleya yelled back to Damien. “You sure they won’t ram us?”
“Not at first,” he answered. “They will get close enough to toss drag lines across if they can.” Pointing to Alia, he added, “Make sure that cannon fires before they do!” The mercenary nodded and turned back to the cannon. Stoking the small burning coal cylinder, she blew hard and lit the flare stick.
The Orotaq ship surged through the waters toward them, and Corleya could hear the bow scrap against the submerged ice and rock, but the bone armor held. The ship closed quickly with chunks of broken ice rolling out from around its sides.
“Fire!” Damien bellowed.
Alia never hesitated. Spinning the flare stick, she touched it to the left cannon and then the right. Both belched flame and the cannonballs hammered the Orotaq ship right at the water line. Corleya tied off the sail lines and rushed to help Alia reload while Damien spun the wheel, heading deeper into the bay of the Jaws of Ice and Rock. As Corleya arrived at the bow, Alia tossed her a dry swab stick and pulled the wet one from the second cannon. The second Corleya jerked the swab from the first cannon, the mercenary was already pouring black powder down its throat. In a matter of minutes, both cannons were loaded, and Corleya returned to the sail lines.
“Slow them?” Alia yelled across the small vessel to Damien.
He nodded. “But they are still after us.”
“Are we faster?” Corleya asked.
“Matters not now, we’re inside the fangs. The deep blue sea will decide our fate long before the Orotaq get here. Be ready and pray the cannons scare off whatever creatures the sea sends our way.”
Chapter Ten
“… and the DemonKind betrayed the ArchDemon, helping the powers of hell to banish Salotan from the Nine Halls of Perdition. Not born nor diseased, but the true DemonKind created by Salotan with magic stolen from the gods. With one last act of defiance, the ArchDemon cursed those who betrayed him so that he could one day return, find, and punish the betrayers with his own hand with the powers of Perdition once more at his command.”
Partial document found in the
Arcane Library Catacombs.
Fact or fiction status unknown, 5026 PC.
Drae’Kahn, DormaSai
BLACKVOID CASTLE
DRAI’KAHN. DORMASAI
Sephi and Ember were the last to arrive to the meeting in the castle’s banquet hall. With soaring forty-foot ceilings, the expansive hall with its black marble pillars and excessive space was the perfect place to hold meetings of magnitude. Six bone statues lined the outer walls from one side to the other. They were a tribute to the long history of necromantic powers held by
both the kings and queens of DormaSai. King Nekrosa had told Ember he loved the intimidating presence the statues produced, as if hell's most powerful guardians where watching over him and his castle. Similar demonic effigies were scattered throughout the castle, some even perched like gargoyles on the castle's keep.
Upon the Queen and Ember's entrance to the hall, Emperor Mero stood as did his two masked advisers. While they were believed to be women, their identities were kept a protected secret so no one could reach the paranoid ruler through them. Others believed they were slaves whose sole purpose was to lay down their lives to save the emperor from assassins. With Mero's reputation, the later was likely closest to the truth. From everything she saw, Ember was sure the man was a coward at heart.
"Your Highness," Emperor Mero said, bowing to Sephi. When he saw Ember, he walked around the tables, approaching her slowly. An expression of awe was etched in his fat face. "May I approach, reverent one?" Before Ember could answer, he dropped to one knee in a generous bow, nearly prostrating before her.
"Emperor Mero. Please, stand. Let us speak face-to-face," Ember said and extended her hand to help him rise. He recoiled from her touch as if he was unworthy to touch Talohna's only Fae.
"As you wish, Madam Eminence. I thank you for meeting with us. The Elloryan people are elated the Fae have returned to Talohna. Our citizens have worshiped your kind for thousands of years. Your architecture and temples still stand in our cities to this very day." The emperor babbled, clearly elated to meet a living idol.
"Thank you, Emperor Mero, for your kind words. Please, sit, so that we may begin."
"Yes, Madam Eminence." As the Emperor returned to his side of the elongated blood-mahogany table, Ember took the seat opposite him, in between Nekrosa and Sephi. Ignoring Yrlissa where she stood behind them, Ember was the first to speak.
"We are gathered here today with the hopes of averting a war between your two countries. With the civil war situation to the north, it is my hope the same does not happen here in the south," Ember began. She looked over all members present at the table to enforce her sincerity before she continued. "My people, traditionally, were always the voice of peace and reason. I hope to live up to their reputation here today. Emperor Mero, you have made it abundantly clear you believe I am being held here against my will. Do you still believe this is so?"