by Thomas Green
‘Was that bolt of fire an attack on me? They are joking, right?’ Volk spun and saw the red-robed man, Zacharias, raising his hands above his head to throw another spell. The beast crossed the thirty feet separating them in a blink of an eye and slashed with his claws, severing the man in three. Volk leaned in and sucked the flying organs.
Luna kept shouting, screaming, begging for the beast to stop. It didn’t. Volk jumped left to tear a colossal spider demon in half, popping its legs out of the body with effortless ease. Two soldiers rushed to him. Volk grabbed the spider and swept them aside with the demon's corpse, crushing them. A spark of light struck his eyes.
‘More silver!’ The beast bolted forward and severed the man wearing the silver necklace, Ludwig, with his claws. A demonic bee flew at the beast’s back, aiming with the stinger at the nape of his neck. Volk ducked, grabbed the bee by the stinger and slammed it to the ground. With a swift swipe, he tore off its head. He noticed a crying woman shooting arrows at him from the remnants of the second floor.
Volk stepped to her and sent her flying with an uppercut. He caught the body into his jaws, devouring her with a single gulp.
A sharp cold hit the beast from the side. As he regenerated, he turned and saw a swirling bubble of water from which spears of ice kept shooting at him. He slid sideways to evade the barrage, grabbed one of the last demons, a monster similar to a horned beetle, and threw it at the swirling bubble. The impact blew the bubble away, splashing it against the wall. Volk stretched his neck and gazed at his surroundings.
Satisfied, the beast snapped out of the rampage. ‘All demons down. This is how it’s done.’
Crying, Luna shrieked into her mind. You killed everyone, you furry idiot!
Volk shrugged, not letting go of her body. ‘You are overdramatizing it.’
He ducked above the body of a blue-robed woman, Yvonne, who the swirling bubble of water left behind, noticing her faint breath. ‘She’s alive. Good enough.’
The beast ignored Luna’s weeping and dashed through the street toward the fortified mansion of Ulognar. The soldiers manning the walls stared at the charging monstrosity, their tanned faces paled.
Volk dug her feet into the ground and sprung forward. The steel gate flung open as he rammed his shoulder into it while the stone wall of the mansion crumbled before his weight, barely slowing him down. Luna stopped counting how many men the beast crushed by his charge as he tore through the house like an angry bear through a garden of daffodils.
At the center of the mansion, Ulognar stood unarmed in a circular hall while beyond him was an open door of the safe room. Luna noticed his wife and children cowering in the shadows.
The beast towered above him, acknowledging the slaver’s straight back despite his expression of utter terror. Volk grabbed him, raised him to his jaws and bit off the upper half of his body, devouring it to get an extra dose of aether. ‘Second mission done. Easy. Let’s go see Miranda.’
No… no, no, no, no, no… No! Luna kept screaming at the beast. In vain. He spun on his heel and sprinted away, heading toward the black flame. Volk reached the town square, a circular area dominated by a marble statue of an angel, searching for Miranda. Within moments, he saw her dodge a swing of the axe of James while kicking the steel sphere of Scitalis into his face.
James laughed as he weaved from the attack. “Losing breath?”
Miranda stepped in, slid under his slash, cut at the back of his knee, leapt up and shrieked the black flame into his smile. He shook everything off as if nothing happened, regenerating in an instant.
The beast stretched. ‘Oh, look at that.’
Luna froze. Don’t even think about it!
‘You know I did.’ Volk snickered and prowled by the side of the square.
James leapt forward and forced Miranda to soulstep sideways to dodge the assault. He spun and sprinted after her, making her soulstep further backward. “I wonder how long you can keep this up.”
‘Here’s one for sealing me inside your daughter.’ Volk sprung forward in a blur, swinging at James. He blocked the attack with his axe, but the force of the blow sent him flying through the wall of the house behind him. Volk charged forward and ran through the building with his shoulder, filling the air with dust and rubble.
James dodged and dug the back barb of his axe into the beast’s thigh, making Volk lose balance and crash into the next house. “Someone seems to be in dire need of getting disciplined.” He darted to the beast.
Miranda’s steel sphere on the chain covered by the black flame hit James in the temple, sending him flying through a mansion’s wall.
Luna froze. Why didn’t she run?
The beast smiled. ‘Guess she needs motivation.’
No! Don’t!
Volk rushed forward and slashed at Miranda. She weaved from the strike and smacked the beast’s forehead with the weight of her chain-sickle. Luna stared through the beast’s eyes, mortified and speechless. Her girlfriend, father and spirit were fighting each other to death without her being able to do anything about it. She wished it was a bad dream. It wasn’t.
A fast blow from James dug into Volk’s side, throwing him backward. ‘To hell with you all!’ The beast snarled and charged. Both Miranda and James dodged and subsequently, James cut his back with the axe while Miranda crushed James’ knee with the steel sphere.
Volk used the opening and ran his claws through James, sending him crashing into the building behind him. The beast spun and hit Miranda with the back of his hand, catapulting her in the air. ‘There you go!’
A humongous hand of blood stretched out of from where James crashed, grabbing after Volk. He ducked, dodged left and leapt after Miranda. James using his aether manifestation was more than enough to bring the beast back to its senses, making it run with its tail tucked.
James’ laughter echoed through the square. “Chickening out, already?” A second hand made of blood erected from the house, grabbed the angel statue standing in the middle of the square, tore it from the ground and threw it at Volk.
The beast swept at Miranda to make her soulstep away, then took the hit from the marble statue, spun and hurled it at Miranda. She dodged, and Volk leapt after her. The arm made of blood reached after them, but the beast pressed forward and Miranda soulstepped away. The arm did not connect.
The beast chased Miranda, who kept dodging. Once they left the city, their fight turned into a sprint through the desert. Luna marveled how fast Miranda ran while using the short soulsteps. She could never imagine someone could ever keep up with Volk. Her heartbeat sped into a frenzy.
They approached a mountain and Miranda leapt across a ridge, falling into a small crack within the stony side. The beast landed on the slope, too large to fit into the opening.
The beast transformed Luna’s body back into her human form, without giving back control. She prayed her aether would run out, and at the same time, refused to think of the nightmare she just went through, hoping it was but a bad dream, a play on her mind. Volk leapt through, landing in a cavern with no other exit.
Miranda stood in front of a cot made of a large pile of furs, slipping down the last bits of her clothes. “Are you always this slow? I almost fell asleep waiting for you.” All scars she had in Xona were gone, her skin perfectly smooth and flexible without a single hair anywhere else than on her head. She was flawless in every sense of the word as if she was a painting of perfection brought to life. A living statue of a genius artist, alien and enthralling like the stars.
The beast threw off Luna’s clothes, leapt to Miranda and caught her in a kiss. They fell onto the bed, entangled into each other. Luna’s aether depleted, forcing the beast out of her body, allowing her to regain control. Her heart sank into her stomach while her body froze.
Miranda arched an eyebrow as Luna stopped moving. “What’s wrong?”
“Please… just… hold me.” Luna exploded into tears, wailing like a damned soul while clenching on her.
Miranda
held her tight and softly stroked her hair while Luna drenched her chest.
“I’m… so… sorry.”
“It’s all right,” Miranda whispered.
“It’s not…. I tried to save them… I didn’t… I killed them.”
“What happened?”
Luna forced herself to speak amidst the sobs, her voice stuttering. “They were surrounded… would have died. I told them to throw away all silver, but they didn’t. I couldn’t save them… I tried.”
Miranda formed a painful smile. “One day, most of my friends wanted to prank me, so they masked themselves and faked kidnapping my younger sister. I fell for the joke, and I killed eight of my own friends before I found out it was a joke. A stupid prank.”
Misery and bitterness seeped out of Miranda, overwhelming Luna’s senses. The story made no difference, but it was the intensity with which Miranda hated herself for it that made her weeping soften. “That’s horrible.”
“It’s one of the many fuckups from my past. Once, another of my friends had a secret lover in a village beyond the mountain range next to my former home. She faked herself being taken away and had a fake execution arranged to escape to live with him. I went to save her. Now, there is no village beyond the mountain range anymore, because, by my command, I had every single of the villagers impaled alive upon wooden stakes.”
“I am sorry...” Luna’s tears dried up. When assessing the reality, she did complete the Order’s mission, earning herself the favor that would protect her from Lucas. And with a slight dose of luck, she could have explained Salazar what happened and maybe, just maybe, he could have understood. His team would have died if she had done nothing.
Miranda’s bitterness had yet to cease. “Don’t be, for I don’t deserve it.”
“I still am.” Luna smiled and weaved her arms around her.
“Why do you trust me so blindly?”
“Because you need it.”
“What makes you think that?”
Luna shrugged. “It’s… complex. You are lonely, depressed, bitter, but somehow are a great person amidst all of it. You didn’t have to jump among the monsters in Xona, but you did. Nothing forced you to stay there to protect me and yet you did. I don’t know why, but I admire it... I admire you. I hope one day I will do something like this.”
“A great person.” Miranda scoffed, her expression turning sourer. “Nashimaeal is a great person, so is Elias. I am not. For the hundred and twenty-six years of my life, I have shit piss to be proud of.”
Luna gaped. “How much?”
“Right, you don’t know.” Miranda sighed, her voice still bitter with old rage. “In Zaraguza Highlands live the Sil Haen, or the Daughters of Dreams if you prefer that name. We are all said to be the children of the Faceless Goddess, so we are all sisters in a sense. All Sil Haen are women, strong, more or less eternally young, and beautiful. But we aren’t the same. Some of us, the first generation, wasn’t born out of the cradle of a woman, but made in the Void and appeared in the world looking adult from the first second of our existence. I am one of them. A Sil Haen pureblood, created by our Goddess to be perfect. The same from creation all the way to now. I can never grow while I recover from all scars and never age. But look at me. I burned a quarter of a large city without feeling bad about it. I am not an example to follow.”
“You still saved me.” Luna hugged her tight. “Plus, you were doing a mission for the Order, so it wasn’t your decision to start burning down the city.”
“I hate when people die because of me. If I want someone to die, I do it myself.” Miranda’s eyes glistened, but her voice remained the same. “And, well, my mission was to be a distraction. It was up to me to decide how I do that. It’s always the same… I get a great idea, execute it and then realize I fucked up. And then you show up and remind me of all the painful memories I have locked away.”
“Why painful?”
Tears shot into Miranda’s eyes. “Because I loved my sisters. I still do. But I was supposed to be perfect, their leader, the wisest and the greatest. I was none of that. Yet they followed me anyway, blind and trusting. For years, I tried to do better, but couldn’t. And so I left, staging my death, taking on a different identity. I thought it would make the world a better place. Well, I certainly haven’t made Redwall better.”
Luna turned red, stuttering. The brutal honesty pierced her heart, reaching all the way to her soul. Miranda was like a bottomless pit full of endless rage. But not at the world, not at others, at herself. “I am sorry. I have no right to ask you about any of this.”
Miranda sneered. “It’s your fault I'm this pathetic now, you little runt, so shut up and listen.”
“I would love to.” Luna smiled and kissed her passionately as she dug her nails into Miranda’s back, her soul melting. Miranda’s lips were so soft and sweet the word perfect couldn’t leave Luna’s mind.
“I have locked away these memories, these feelings. I joined the special forces of the Holy Order of Palai as an assassin which is how I have lived for the past few decades. For years, I lived through one fake identity after another, advancing through the ranks. Over the time, I was dragged to the top of the Order. Then the head of the special forces died, and they were looking for a replacement. I tried to avoid the promotion. Yet there was only so long I could resist given the fact that I had been the most veteran, accomplished, and acknowledged member of the special forces. The Cobra. I gave in and accepted.”
Luna arched an eyebrow. “Why did you want to refuse?”
“Because I felt like it would change something. I didn’t know what, but I knew that if I were to accept the promotion, something would happen that would change everything. It’s this strange thing when you expect something despite having no reason.”
“And did it?”
“The day of my promotion came up, and I was called to the army headquarters in Heaven’s Rest. I walked in, and the guards sent me to a small side room instead of the hall of ceremonies. Inside sat Lucas, Merewen, Elias, and Nashimaeal, all arguing over some maps. They were making plans for this campaign. I stood there awkwardly as they didn’t notice me. But then Lucas flicked his wrist, and a marker on the map disappeared and reappeared elsewhere. Up till that point, I thought four people in the world could soulstep, all of whom were Sil Haen purebloods. Out of us four, only one can soulstep an object she isn’t touching.” Miranda raised her hand close to Luna’s face. A bottle of mead appeared in her palm. “Only I. And then the silver-haired bastard did it in my face and shattered how I had seen the world for my whole life.”
Luna smiled, not understanding half of what Miranda was talking about, but somehow, she felt closer to her than she ever felt to anyone. She loved it. “What do you mean, shattered?”
“Aether manifestations travel in bloodlines. His power isn’t similar to mine, it is identical. Except that he’s an annoying, stinking human who made me cry like a little bitch when he told me he was proud of me two days ago.”
Luna snickered. “That’s what fathers do.”
Miranda drew in a sharp breath. “Did you listen to anything I said?”
Luna caught her mouth for a hungry kiss. “I’m not good at being smart. Anyway, do you think James bought our fight and didn’t figure out we have something?”
Miranda shook her head, pried open the bottle of mead and drank a third. “Ehhh… well… I threw it into his face the second I met him.”
“You did… what?”
Miranda formed an awkward smile. “Remember the part where I sometimes have great ideas which are stupid in retrospect? This was one of them.”
“I am so dead.” Luna buried her head into Miranda’s chest.
“It will be fine… how vengeful can he be about it?”
“You don’t want to know. I am sorry about tonight. This isn’t how I hoped it would happen.”
Miranda kissed her. “Me neither, but we have tomorrow.”
“Yea… now I hope the sun comes up soon be
cause I am freezing. This will be the worst backlash I have had in years, and I then there’s the match later today.”
Miranda’s face hardened. “You are not going anywhere like this.”
“Relax, I only need to go there to talk. I have to explain to Salazar what happened.”
“That’s a horrible idea.”
Luna nodded, her heart sinking. She conjured the most innocent smile she could. “You are right, that would have been stupid.” She was lying. She knew it was a bad idea but was set to do it. Xona was the last city in this part of the continent to which she could go after the tournament, so she had to make sure Salazar didn’t put a bounty on her. No matter the risk.
35
Salazar
Salazar found his team’s house in ruins when he returned from the dinner with Lord Alkambra. Rubble, blood, mangled corpses welcomed them after they fought through the panic that gripped the city as a black fire spread through it, consuming one building after another. Salazar peered over the carnage that was left of his team. “Don’t say it,” he whispered to Katherine.
“Let’s search for survivors,” she said, her voice shaking. The silent I told you so hung up in the air like a guillotine.
They went through the slaughter. Organs, blood, and body pieces lay everywhere.
“I am sorry,” Katherine said as she stood above the corpses of her men. Crushed, smashed or half eaten by the demon beetles.
Salazar gazed over the slaughter. “What happened here?”
“Demons attacked, and our team was overwhelmed. Then something came and killed everyone.”
He ducked above the torn pieces of what was once Zacharias. “I will make sure to pay out your share to your children.”
Katherine stepped above the remains of Ludwig. “I knew you were wiser than me and I wish I could have listened to you more.”
