by Bethan Johns
Chapter 9 – Power Struck
10,325 AC
Sierade
I saw the battlefield fall apart and I laughed from atop my dragon. I sucked the magic back into myself and fell to the ground. I let my blades fly as I let my silver aura shine. I did not need magic now, this was a battle; this was blood.
I felt when their blades punctured me, I felt it like they were merely fingers being dragged along my skin. I spun my way through the soldiers, cutting them down, sweeping them aside like they were just skeletons.
I came upon a wall of Howelltie.
I nearly started cutting into them and when we recognized each other I laughed joyfully. I had met up with my front line. I turned and moved forward with them cutting a line through whatever soldiers were left.
I stayed on the battlefield until the last soldier was downed. I removed my shoes and inspected my wounds. Some would take some time to heal. The Elfin had carried Ash weaponry.
I let my feet soak in the blood-stained field. I let my body eat up the passion that was left over by my troops. We had not lost many. Less than six hundred. Out of eight thousand. I breathed in the scent of the ashy pyres already burning bodies. It was rancid, but this is what I had fought for, this is what my mercs lived for.
Looking around, I lifted a delicate looking Elfin hand from a pile of loose bloody body parts. I kicked aside a still-gasping Fae male to grasp the amputated hand and let a sword appear in my left hand to casually drop down and slit his throat.
Inspecting my prize, I held a beautiful ring of glinting turquois stone. It had been cut from a much larger stone. The ring would not be worth much, but it was lovely to look at, the perfect mix between understated and intricate. I pulled the ring from the hand and discarded the limb over my shoulder to place the bloody article on my right-hand pointer finger.
Summoning my firedrake and making her large enough for the field to see, I flew back to the commanding base. Faust was there, the link in our minds told me.
As I flew, the mercenaries below cheered when I passed. Some sent their firedrakes into the sky to touch mine before drawing them back in to themselves. The Fae warriors on the other side of the battle seemed to have fared well also, losing less than eight hundred. They did not yet know what had happened to cause such chaos on the battlefield.
I drew my power back into myself when I saw Gaelen walking slowly across the battlefield, and I landed in front of him.
He took me in from head to toe, my leather had been destroyed. I was completely covered in dried and crusting blood. My feet were bare and dirty. I had many wounds. Some were still bleeding.
I looked him over and saw he looked similar, though his leather had remained intact for the most part. His eyes were back to gold and his wings were simply black now. I saw no sign of the magnificent beast I had met on the killing field.
I moved towards him and he watched me warily, like he the doe and I the wolf. It pleased me. He was powerful, yet he was wary of my power.
“What manner of creature are you?” I asked him again.
He stared at me for a moment.
His eyes dropped to the ground. “What happened to your boots?” He asked.
I snapped my fingers and suddenly my filthy and bloody feet were tucked into a pair of clean, fur-lined loafers.
He smiled then, more to himself than to me. I turned and started walking to the base tent.
He followed.
When we entered Faust rushed over to me and inspected me, holding me by the shoulders. I inspected him at the same time, he was equally bloody. We smiled at each other and turned to the others. Bryln looked clean other than a few still bleeding cuts on his chest where his armour had been ripped open. I raised my eyebrows. Elliot also looked clean. His armour was torn and he had a few wounds as well.
When Gaelen stepped in Elliot snapped his fingers and all the dirt and blood on him disappeared.
Elliot turned to me; I held out my hand “Don’t you dare do that to me. If I face my armies fresh as a new born babe after a battle I will never live it down.” Faust sniggered.
I threw myself into a chair and snapped a drink for myself into existence, looking to Faust I snapped one into the air in front of him which he easily caught. I drained mine and he did as well. I refilled them.
“So, do we have anything to debrief on?” I asked.
Gaelen moved forward “What manner of creature are you?” He asked me.
“Fae or Howelltie, depending on who you ask.” I responded easily.
“How is it that you have access to that kind of energy?” he asked
“How is it that you do?” I asked
We stared each other down.
“All right.” Elliot moved forward. My eyes shifted to him “Why don’t we debrief later?”
“I am going to get my troops home.” I stood and stretched smirking at Gaelen “Would you like any help rifting your troops?” He sat in a chair and growled lightly into his drink without looking at me. I nodded at Elliot with a quick “Elliot” and winked at Bryln before leaving the tent.
I rifted ahead for a moment to ensure that the clear area I had requested beforehand was ready, when I did and my armies waiting to greet us saw my appearance, they began cheering.
A few minutes later I rifted in the remaining army to the sound of riotous cheering and screaming. I lapped up the energy as I walked to my tent, I felt a small tug in my mind from Torcelyn calling me up to the keep.
I rifted directly into the dining room. There were a few people in there and they seemed shocked at my dirty and bloodied appearance.
I scoffed at the dignitaries “Don’t worry, the bloods not mine” I mocked them.
Reves stood and laughed. “I heard your battle went well. I also heard some other interesting stories. I wanted to congratulate you and let you know that Elliot and Gaelen will be coming tomorrow to debrief.”
“Thank you.” I caught the eye of a particularly pretty little Nephilim and gave her a light wink and she blushed crimson. The male beside her frowned at her.
Reves clicked his teeth at me growling lightly. “Stop terrorizing my guests and get out of here Si. I will see you at the debriefing tomorrow.”
I smiled and rifted.
✽✽✽
Gaelen
Elliot and I rifted into the drawing room at the Nephilim keep to find Sierade and Reves already there. She was sitting on the floor on a carpet in front of the hearth wearing a loose fitting white shirt, a pair of short black shorts and a pair of fur lined loafers.
I absorbed the scars on her legs, they looked at odds with the Fae girl who looked for all the world like she had just rifted here from her bedchamber.
This was the same girl who had left the battlefield soaked in blood yesterday? I shook my head trying to reconcile the two. I glanced at Elliot and could tell he was doing the same.
Her head was tilted back in laughter and she looked so young it made my throat hurt. I had a strange feeling come over me, something akin to dejavu. As though I had been here before. I searched inside myself to see if I was going to be receiving a prophecy, or if I was currently coming up to a fork and I could see nothing.
I tried to shake the feeling off as I looked at her hand, at the ring she wore that was clearly of Elfin design. I wondered if she had taken it from a corpse on the killing field the day before.
She was laughing at something that Reves had said, he was sitting in a chair near the hearth, his face lit up as he leaned forward speaking animatedly to her.
Her eyes shone as they looked over at us, the amusement slowly draining from her eyes as she looked from Elliot, to myself.
When they moved to mine I saw her face shift from amusement to confusion to concern.
“Are you all right Gaelen?” She asked me as we crossed the room to them.
Reves turned, and noticing us, stood up and bowed to Elliot. “Your Majesty”
Elliot merely nodded. “Call me Elliot, Reves.”
/> Reves sat back down, I took the chair across from him. Sierade turned to look at me as Elliot sat on the carpet next to her. “I’m fine Sierade” I answered her quietly.
She was silent a moment studying me, I studied her back wondering what it was she thought she could glean from the inspection, I was not gleaning much from her. “Call me Si.” She said “Or Siera.” She turned her body so that her back was to the hearth as she leaned back on her palms with her legs sticking straight out in front of her.
Elliot sat cross legged next to her on the thick rug.
“So Siera” He said experimentally. She nodded at him, pleased. “Are you never going to bow for me?”
She smiled as she looked him over. “I will bow to you the day I forget where I came from.”
“Why?” he asked quietly and curiously. I knew that the line of questioning was just another way to get to know this creature. Elliot truly did not care who did, or did not bow to him. That is why he had left the courts, why he had created his own armies, his own fortunes. He was independent and only used his title when he had to.
She shrugged
“When I was a child some Fae came to Howelltie to train me, they wanted to take me out of there, because they knew what came next. I was told that for some reason, Queen Aubliette herself denied the request of my removal from the Howelltie camps. Within a few months I had been beaten within inches of my life and raped by two Howelltie males, one of which was my instructor.”
Elliot flinched. As though she had punched him right in the face.
She looked unperturbed. “I would not change the way I was raised, but for that one thing. If I had my way that would be removed from the Howelltie way of life altogether. They say that it makes us stronger, as though as females we are not already strong enough.”
I cleared my throat. “Is that the same instructor who you, as you so eloquently put it, ripped the dick off of and set on fire?”
She looked at me, her eyes shining now. “Yes.”
Reves looked like he was going to be sick. I smiled lightly.
“So as you can probably understand, I have held a bit of a grudge against your dear Queen Aubliette ever since. I do not know the circumstances. I do not understand why the queen herself needed to approve my removal from the Howelltie colonies. It makes me think she is the reason I was there to begin with. From what I’ve heard, I never should have survived my childhood, let alone thrived as I have. So joke’s on her.” She finished.
I shook my head. “Yet you work for her now.”
She smiled. “I do not work for Aubliette. I work for the Rustlavayne.”
Shaking his head, Elliot was staring at her feet, frowning. “So what’s with the slippers?”
She broke eye contact with me and looked at Elliot. “You know, you’re very judgey Elliot. I think I liked you better when you were drunk.”
I choked on my laughter and Elliot glared at me. “She’s not wrong, you’re being exceptionally judgey. Leave the girls slippers alone; let’s get this debriefing done.”
Reves cleared his throat. “Yes, we can drink and fight later.” He smiled at Sierade with heat in his eyes that was hard to miss.
She merely nodded. “When I arrived at the battle, I explained some of the specific magical abilities of my armies; abilities of which you are aware Reves.”
He nodded “Yes, the siphoning and the legions of firedrakes.”
“Were you also aware that once Siera cut off the supply of the Elfin army’s psychics our psychics worked together and broke the minds of all the Fae possible. Her fire users were able to siphon the magic from the unwilling.” Elliot spoke.
Reves eyes widened as he looked to her. “You’re soldiers siphon raped their magic?”
She brought up a knee and nodded. I could tell she was watching for his reaction, judging him, her eyes narrowing.
He shook his head as Elliot continued. “That alone dropped thousands of soldiers, their fire magic feeding into the very drakes that were burning their comrades. Our psychics then worked in tandem sending out illusions across the vulnerable battlefield, causing them to turn on themselves.”
“The battle was over at that point.” I said quietly.
“For some.” Siera muttered.
“What?” I asked her.
“It was over for some at that point. For the foot soldiers it lasted many more hours of hand-to-hand combat” She was looking at the floor picking at the carpet. “The battle is not over until the last soldier is downed.”
“How did you manage to fight, alone, in a group of thousands of Elfin armed with ash without coming away more injured?” I asked, genuinely curious. “You weren’t rifting, you were just fighting. I saw you, surrounded by thousands”
I couldn’t see any new scars on her legs; she looked for all intents and purposes intact.
She scanned my face and after finding there was no mockery in the question, she tapped her finger against the carpet. Her shirt disappeared, baring her arms and her torso, they were covered in dozens of small surface injuries, she had one or two injuries that were likely stab wounds in her middle section.
She sat up on her heels, turning her back to me. It was completely covered in wounds; there was a bruise so massive that it was very likely she had suffered internal bleeding at one point. The fact that this was what was left after a day of healing was unfathomable.
I shook my head and snapped my fingers. Her shirt returned to her body. She leaned back onto her hands and stretched a bit. She didn’t even move like she was favouring wounds.
She looked at Reves, who was studying her like she was a fascinating new species; again, there was heat in his eyes that she seemed to ignore.
“Can we get drunk now?”
He laughed “Yes, Si, let’s get drunk.”
We started drinking heartily. After an hour or so Siera disappeared and showed back up with about eight sleepy looking Howelltie, they looked concerned.
“Drink!” she said to them. “Be merry!” She disappeared again.
This time she returned with Nephilim. They looked much more alarmed. “Drink!” she laughed.
She waved her fingers and a harp, a fiddle, and a set of drums appeared and started playing themselves.
I moved over to one of the Howelltie males. He had a drink in his hand and a small smile on his face as he watched her dance around the room.
“She just rifted into your tent and grabbed you all out of bed, didn’t she?” I asked.
He laughed, “Yes she certainly did.”
“Does she do that often?” I asked.
He nodded “She is known for it, she always chooses a random tent. She says her goal is to someday say that she has personally gotten drunk with every one of her soldiers, no one knows how far through the army she actually is.”
I laughed.
Turning around once more I saw Reves bow low to try and charmingly take her hand to dance, she laughed and just grabbed him by his shirt, dragging him against her and throwing them both into the swirling raucous dancing that went with the fiddling.
I snorted. Elliot had flung himself among a few of the Nephilim who seemed to be very slowly warming up to the thought of dancing with their prince in a casual setting.
One of the Howelltie males was dancing very seductively with a Nephilim female who seemed glowingly receptive to the attention.
I went to sit in the chair in front of the roaring fire.
✽✽✽
Sierade
I broke off from the dance with Reves and left him on the dance floor with Elliot, two Nephilim males, and a Howelltie female.
Walking across the room with the intention of throwing myself on the rug in front of the hearth, I noticed Gaelen sitting in a chair staring into the fire.
I bounded up beside his chair and threw myself across his lap. He jerked back spilling his drink and frowning at me.
“I would like you to dance with me” I said pulling the drink from his hand and finishing
it.
He chuckled as I threw the glass at the hearth where it shattered, and the flames licked higher for a moment.
“This is not my style of music.” He said.
“That is a lame excuse.” I frowned at him.
His fingers lazily traced circles up my back with one hand lightly trailing over the wounds I could still feel healing. With his other hand he lifted my right hand to inspect the Elfin ring I still wore.
