Beauty In The Beast

by Erik Schubach

  Chapter 11 – Styche, the Trickster

  I looked around to the women, the legends all around us in the farmhouse and shrugged. “I don't know how long we were in the gardens, the days, months, years, and decades have all blurred together.” I spread my hands. “Then just a couple weeks ago, we found the maze again and something called to Illy, waking up Yth'Ical from a peaceful slumber deep inside her. An evil beyond any she had felt, the one who made her, and so we traveled into the maze and found the world of man again so that we could stop the evil she can feel trying to consume the land.” I hugged Illiya to me and kissed her forehead as the women looked on. We all turned as one to glare at the Grimm brothers who had effectively imprisoned my girl and me for so very long. It was a pleasant prison, but a prison none the less, without contact with any other people for so very long. And this modern world is so overwhelming with wonder on top of wonder. Technology is the new magic and mankind has progressed so far during the time we spent in the garden. Yet, even so, seem less capable of dealing with otherworldly threats. I exhaled. “We had emerged into a slaughter when we stepped off the path from the garden, up in a little village south of Glasgow. Those partial demon hybrids were attacking and infecting everyone. Illiya and I had to put an end to it. I could feel the torment of the people locked inside the evil, but could not pull them out like I could my Illy.” I shuddered, and Illiya spoke for the first time since I told our story. “Belle doesn't like killing, even now. She doesn't understand that the hybrids are already lost, like me. They will only be pulled into the pit, to endless torment if we did not grant them true death. It was a mercy since they were innocents. We couldn't let them run unchecked, building an army with numbers not even we could face.” Then her voice deepened as Yth' moved a bit to the fore. “I know the torment from which we saved them,” she growled with a voice one would associate with a tiger. I placed a hand on her arm, and she turned to me, and I leaned in to place my forehead against hers. She calmed herself without need of my gifts. I sighed at the intense look she gave me, dangerous and seductive. The women just stared at her for a moment before I spun on the brothers. “I will never forgive you for tricking us and imprisoning us like that, but I must know... you said earlier that Illiya was the key to this 'entire mess.' What did you mean by that?” Jacob looked around to the accusing eyes all around him and his brother and gave a sheepish look. These women all saw their trick as reprehensible as well, and I found myself liking them more for it. He said, “Styche has all his power here in the mortal realm, and as such only a god or Elder can stand against him. Perchta in her true form is a match for him, but as we know, Perchta is not with us anymore. If only there were some way for Gretta to access a piece of Perchta from before her great sacrifice...” He trailed off, and the brothers both turned their eyes to me and Jacob's eyes flicked to Gretta, who was staring at me intently again. My talisman was getting hot under her gaze. Then they looked away, and Jacob shrugged. “Barring that, it is only the might of the Avatars combined that can stand against him. But the imbalance remains, and the Elder or Elders will use that to show that a balance cannot be met in the mortal realm, and they will destroy the realm and begin again.” Wilhelm added, “They believe they have put us in a no-win situation.” Jacob nodded. “If the Avatars win, there will be such an imbalance of good that the scales would never attain their natural balance, evil would never be able to get a toehold in this reality. But if Styche succeeds in creating a gateway to the underworld which cannot be closed. It will be hell on Earth and evil will prevail... So another reset.” Wilhelm exchanged a grin with him, and Jacob looked around at us. “What the Elders didn't take into consideration, is that we would catch on, and hide away some pieces that could come into play to balance out their own play. Pieces that were tucked away in realms not of their making and thus out of their influence.” He shrugged apologetically to Illy and me. Then he continued, “Their interference in the game causes the greatest imbalance, and so the scales must be balanced, and we have made sure we would have the five pieces they could not see, to oppose their endgame.” Was he speaking of Illy and me? If so, we were but two, they had three others tucked away somewhere? Parker voiced it, “Belle and Illiya? Who are the others?” She paused and narrowed her eyes. “Wait you said earlier that Cristian Marcus, the last Alpha, was sheltered from this realm... he is one of your pawns too.” The brothers smiled at each other and Wilhelm held a hand out expectantly, and Jacob handed him a gold coin. Parker reached out, pretty quickly for a human, and snatched the coin from him and pocketed it. “You bet on us, we get the payout. Who are the other two?” Wilhelm gave her a sad smile. “Parker, you know it doesn't work that way.” I looked around, I could feel the wave of frustration flowing from the women, of the need to reach out and slap these men for their infernal games. Then the enormity of what they were saying crashed down upon me, and I could see realization dawning on the others faces, Nicole spoke up from where she was buffing her silver armor. “Wait, you want us to go up against the Elders? Gods? To stop them from destroying the mortal realm?” Jacob said too cheerily, “Well if you want to be all dramatic about it, then... well, yes.” He grinned from ear to ear. Then Wilhelm added in a somber tone, “Since we won't be there to lend aid.” Ella spat out, “Typical.” Then she paused at the sad looks that Jacob and Wilhelm exchanged. “What? Why won't you be there?” Wilhelm offered, “There will be a price for us to pay for breaking the rules. And we fear the bill will come due sooner rather than later.” Jacob shrugged then said in a more jovial tone, “That's neither here nor there at this moment. The important thing is that our dear Illiya here will draw Styche out of hiding. She is the anchor to all his power here, and he will know she is in the mortal realm now, and be drawn to her. She could be his salvation or his end as she holds the exact amount of power as himself. He will wish to add that power to his.” He looked overly pleased with himself over that. So just her being here made her bait. Is that why we found the hedge maze again? They had allowed the path to be opened again so that they could draw out Styche? Then the two men stepped to the door and opened it. Jacob looked over toward Daria and crooked his finger. She advanced, her fangs showing menacingly and he crouched and whispered something in her ear. Everyone was straining to listen but looked frustrated, the brothers were somehow preventing their enhanced senses from listening in. A wave of intense hatred and rage flowed out of Daria, and she howled and snarled as she darted out the door and just ran. Parker took a step forward, and she posed a question to the world, “Daria?” She spun on the man, “What did you say to her?” He shrugged then waved it off like it was nothing. Then Wilhelm stepped outside, and Jacob went to follow, paused, then addressed the room with a bit of teasing in his voice, “Oh, and did we mention that we may or may not have gotten word to Styche, as to where Mari's body is interred. Balance and all. Good day ladies.” He saluted with two fingers as the women ran at him in rage while he closed the door. Parker yanked the door open, and we all flowed outside to see an empty farmyard, the Grimm brothers were nowhere to be seen. We stood there in frustration, and I saw Parker looking in the direction Daria had run off in. Amanda checked the dual modern gun weapons she had strapped to her sides, and said to Parker, “I'll track her.” Robyn placed a hand on her shoulder, “Don't Mandywolf. We can't separate the group. If Styche is coming for Illiya, we'll need everyone. I think they were trying to split us up.” She didn't sound confident. She most likely felt the same as me when I tried to figure out what game the brothers were playing. Parker asked herself quietly as Ella stepped to her side, “What did they tell her?” I looked around then took a step toward Robyn and Parker. “May... may I seek audience La... Robyn?” She smiled so brightly at me, her eyes twinkling, and she brushed her hair back to expose ears that were pointed. She was... my lady was... was she an elf? That explained so very much. I thought them to be mythical beings born of Perchta. Her strength, her speed, long life, and uncanny aim with her arrows all made sense now. I thought
it was but a blessing from the Goddess Perchta she prayed to. She said to me as she cocked her head cutely, “Belle, there is nothing to speak about. Your quest was righteous, your honor true. It was unneeded, as I hadn't even realized I had lost one of the feathers which line my quiver. It never belonged to me, as it was a gift from Perchta to my kin. It chose you for a reason.” She looked over at my Illy fondly and said, “Everything happens for a reason, and I believe the feather chose you so that you could be Illiya's salvation.” Then she looked back at Gretta and said, “If anyone, the talisman belongs more to Gretta than anyone.” To Gretta? Why Gretta Snow? But if my Lady professed it, there had to be a reason. My eyes rested on Gretta's small antlers. Was she kin to Perchta like the elves? Gretta met my eyes and stepped up to us, and I blinked in shock. One moment she was Gretta the next she was the vision of the Goddess herself, in her billowing white feather cloak and great white antlers, longer than a man's arm. It was her... Perchta. I dropped to a knee and bowed deeply, whispering at the ground in reverence, “Goddess.” Her voice was one of power and compassion with the promised danger of the Wild Hunt behind it all. “Child, stand, please. I am not your Goddess. Just a pale shadow of her. She gave all that I might live. But you have something I believed did not belong to you as I can feel my old power... I mean her old power within the feather. It calls to me, wanting to make me whole again after so long.” Then she shook her head, and she was Gretta Snow. I blinked, had I imagined it all? Gretta pulled me gently to my feet and said, “But what Robyn says is true, the talisman has chosen you, I can feel it extending through your very being, making you one with it. You feared you wouldn't be able to return it to its rightful owner to maintain your honor... but I see that it is rightfully yours, so your honor is intact as you, Belle of Locksley, are the rightful owner. Especially since it has found your love.” She reached out and took one of Illy's hands and then pressed it into mine. Gretta was smiling widely at the two of us. I had to blush. Then paled. Was my quest truly for naught? But then I looked at the love of my life and smiled. No, I had just been on a different quest without knowing. I laced our fingers. I was about to ask the women a question when all hell broke loose, quite literally it seems, as a shimmering portal opened in the farmyard, we could see a forest on the other side of it, and hundreds of hybrids came pouring out of it, with some true demons in the mix, screaming and screeching out battle cries. A shadowed figure stepped out of the breach behind them. It spread its wings wide, one was horribly torn and scarred, and one of his eyes was sewn shut. The malice that rolled off of him matched that of my girl's. I realized I was seeing Styche the Trickster for the first time, and his very presence seemed to cloy at me like it was trying to adhere to and eat at my soul. Illy's scream of pain and rage which turned into the bellowing of thousands of tortured souls snapped me out of it. She had exploded into her Yth'Ical faster than thought, her clothing shredding in an instant as the beastly unicorn charged at the oncoming swarm. The other Avatars didn't even hesitate as they too charged. I heard Parker speaking into one of those pieces of technology that allowed the modern humans to communicate through the very air itself, “ADI, incursion! We have a class three incursion at safe house Gamma Three. Avatars on site. We need containment, approximately one thousand hostiles. Styche is in situ.” Then she just started running at the oncoming flood of demons, no hesitation. All of these women had no fear. Well, that isn't true, I could feel their compartmentalized fear. Their determination and control overrode any compulsion to flee or cower. They burned like beacons in the sea of darkness. I pulled my staff, and it started glowing with a blinding white light. Styche had come for my girl, he could tell where she was, and he came for her. He'd take her over my dead body. I screamed out a challenge and waded into the fray, infusing the staff with my desperation to protect my girl and my rage at Styche for his trespasses against her, for condemning her to her living hell. I had never seen anything like this, Illy and I have fought small groups of demons or black magic practitioners, but this... this was a battlefield. A war. The numbers of hybrids intermixed with a few true demons should have been an overwhelming force, but these few women were not deterred. As I spun my staff and thrust at the enemy after enemy, I watched these same women act as parts of a whole. Rose again contained the battle with impossibly huge walls of black briars like she had done when we fist met. Evelyn and Ella were at the front of the line, taking on the largest of the enemy. I had to blink in surprise when Ella spread her arms wide, and a torrent of crystal shards seemed to fly from her. The shards tore into the enemy hoards, shredding, maiming, killing. Evelyn, the new Red Hood, moved with the speed of Robyn, her powerful blows sending hybrids flying. The others grouped together to battle in formation, protecting each other's backs, except Gretta, who dove into the sky and was Perchta. She met Styche in aerial combat. I could feel the immense power they were throwing at each other, and the world around us shuddered. I shook my head in disbelief. These women could stand against hundreds, and they all knew their part in the defense. I felt suddenly inadequate. I looked over to the side to see my beautiful beastly girl tearing through the hoard like they were made of straw. They piled onto her back in passing, tearing out chunks of flesh and consuming it as she just shook and trampled them while she fought. I spun and swiped my staff, infusing it with emotion, and was barely able to keep the flood of hybrids off of me. A tiny demon dove off the shoulder of a hybrid I took down. It looked like some sort of terrifyingly grotesquely deformed toad, but it had human eyes. It spat at me, then was suddenly knocked out of its leap by a fuzzy blur, which was screeching with a tiny voice. The acidic spit hit my shoulder and burned through my clothing and started to burn my skin until the talisman flared and seemed to envelop and consume the caustic sputum. I looked down to see Conrad rolling along the ground, raking at the flesh of the toad creature with his tiny claws. It kept trying to spit at him, but Conrad was too fast, he was always whipping around the tiny demon, like a ball of fur and fury, claws tearing at the creature's flesh. Then just like that, the toad stopped moving and started dissolving into the putrified mess of black ichor and sulfur as Conrad held its eyes in his tiny claws. He was sort of intimidating in this new light. He dropped the melting flesh and then bounded off back into the fray, deftly dodging the crushing feet of the combatants. I shook my head, the fuzzy little guy was braver than most people I knew. I was being pressed back by the sheer numbers when I heard Parker calling to me. “Belle? What are you doing? Get over here, we have to fight as a group. They'll overwhelm you out there alone.” I nodded at her and blinked when she slammed a fist through the skull of a hybrid. Her arm was gleaming and reflecting light like it was made of pure crystal. So that was her power? I was knocked to a knee as I started toward them. Then the chaotic sounds of battle were drowned out by a screeching bellow that had some covering their ears in pain, a couple just dropped to the ground, dead, their demon aspects starting to dissolve. I saw most of the Avatar's wiping blood from their eyes and the sides of their faces. I wiped my own away as Yth'Ical came charging through the masses like a runaway elephant, trampling or impaling those in her path as she fought to my side. I could feel her indecision to skewer me upon that great horn too when she reached me. I smiled and laid a hand on her flank. She came to my aid, she would not harm me even though part of her wanted nothing more. I yelled to her over the roars of the hybrids, “You won't hurt me. Save your bluster, love.” Then I added, “Thank you,” as I got back to my feet as she tossed demons and hybrids around like they were confetti. I swung my staff at her back, left and right, knocking some hybrids to the ground, who were feasting upon her flesh. I winced and looked away as she stomped their skulls under her great hooves. Then her head snapped to the side, and she saw the Avatars as they battled. She bellowed and started charging. I could feel her malice and glee at taking on more enemies. I slid in front of her and held my arms wide. “No, they are our friends.” She swung her horn at me, barely missing, then stood on her hind legs and win
dmilled her hooves just inches from my face as I held my breath. It was her favorite threat. I called out, “Ooo, very frightening. I think that big one over there thinks he can take you.” I pointed to a true demon that looked a cross between a hippo and a bear, quite a ways away in the opposite direction from the Avatars. Yth' snapped her head to the side to see the other creature and then bellowed in rage and charged through the horde to engage it. I snickered at how easy it was to distract my love, then fought my way to Parker's side. I had to blink at the display that Rapunzel was putting on. The rest of the group gave her about a twenty-foot cushion, and she was whipping a rope around, which looked to be made of fine filaments of braided steel with weighted blades at the ends of it. It slithered through the air in her expert grasp as she had it strike out again and again at the enemy, striking lethal blow after lethal blow. One got under her guard, but she just spun in place, her ankle length hair fanning out around her from the speed of her pirouette. The dozens of silver feather shaped blades which adorned her hair, slicing and filleting the flesh of the creature, and it just stopped. And I realized she had yanked her rope back to her and the two weighted blades had impacted the hybrid's back. She yanked, and her intriguing weapon whistled through the air again, spinning and twisting around her in a deadly dance. I knocked aside a hybrid then froze as both Rachel and Amanda swung one of their gun weapons toward me as they fired blindly the other way with matching weapons taking out hybrids coming at them. Their gun weapons belched their fire, and I closed my eyes expecting the pain to bloom. Those gun devices could kill from great distances. I opened my eyes when I heard a thud beside me. I looked down to see a hybrid with two holes in its head, leaking black ichor as the demon aspect started dissolving of the human host. It had been about to strike me from behind. I smiled a sheepish thank you to the two wolves. Amanda winked and spun low firing perhaps a dozen or so rounds faster than I could follow. Then she held her gun weapons up, and something fell out of the base of them, and she slammed them to her sides and pulled them back up firing. She was skilled with those modern weapons. I had to smile at Robyn who was leaning against Mandy's back, loosing arrows as fast as she could draw them. Striking out at the enemy who got too close with powerful sweeps of her bow. I realized it was glowing slightly like my staff. I slid into a gap they made in their ring beside Parker, and she yelled as she kicked away a hybrid who was clawing at her face, “Welcome to the party!” She had the tone of vibrating glass in her voice, and I glanced at her, and saw that half of her face was crystal. I gave her a firm nod then took a defensive stance with my staff, realizing how much of an advantage it was knowing that I only had to defend to the front as the women had my back. We battled for what seemed like hours. I saw the few flying demons, who tried getting over the briars, get torn to pieces by what had to be gunfire. That would be the ADI forces that Parker had called for containment. I knew that the modern people had great flying machines, why did they not come attack with those, while staying out of reach of the enemy? I got an answer to my question when something came careening out of the sky in a white streak, it impacted the ground with the force of a meteor. The ground shook as dirt and rocks went flying as it left a great crater in the ground, crushing hybrids unlucky enough to be in its path. I saw Perchta stagger to her feet and look back up at Styche who was diving out of the sky toward her. She thrust a hand forward, and more power than I have felt in my entire life exploded from her hand. It was as if nature itself were leaping to her defense and she channeled it all into a blast that sent Styche twisting and spiraling back. She panted a second, looking so very tired, then took a deep breath and leapt back into the sky. It seemed the two were almost evenly matched though Styche seemed to have an edge. I saw the greater demon look down upon the battlefield, his good eye intent on Illy before he turned his attention back to the Goddess of Nature closing on him. I looked at the battlefield, there was less and less enemy to face. I had hope. I should have known better than to have jinxed us with that thought. I saw a hybrid who had oddly shaped legs like a cricket or grasshopper dive above us all, in a high arc and land on Rachel's back. It drove it's three-inch fangs deep into her shoulder and yanked from side to side, shredding her flesh. My blood ran cold, she'd be... infected by the demon curse, she didn't have magic to stop the infection like most of us did. I felt her pain but something else, not fear of what was to come, instead it was a fierce excitement for the battle, and she held one of the gun weapons to her own shoulder and fired a half dozen times. She had shot through herself to get the hybrid off her back. She wasn't turning, the insipid demon contagion couldn't seem to take hold. Then I understood as she spun and her weapon belched fire twice more into the forehead of the creature on the ground. She placed a hand holding a weapon to her shoulder to look, and I saw it healing already. She didn't need to fear the curse because she was already cursed. She wasn't going to become a hybrid. She grinned at me when she noted my attention on her, then she was gone, tumbling across the ground with Perchta. They came to a halt, and Perchta looked barely conscious. Unchallenged now, Styche landed near my girl. Oh hell no. I started running, and Parker called after me, “Belle! Don't!” I knocked away a couple of the thinning herd of the enemy as I sprinted toward my girl. Styche had gotten her attention, and the two started circling each other. The demon spoke, “You shouldn't be here, but it is fortuitous that you are. I will add your power to my own, and I will finally be whole again, and bring this realm to its knees.” A hybrid slammed into my side in my distraction, and I held my staff up to block its elongated jaws from biting into me. It shattered teeth on the staff but was undeterred. Then with a grunt, it was flying through the air in two different directions after it was cleaved in half by a sweep of Yth's great horn. Then she was clopping backwards swinging her horn again and again as Styche swiped his claws at her, trying for a killing blow. She parried each strike, odd black sparks of fetid magic flying from each impact. I rolled up to my feet and strode forward. “Styche would not take my girl from me. My determination and love flowed from me into my staff, and it glowed brightly as I struck at the demon from behind. The talisman flared on my chest, consuming me in heat as I landed a solid blow to his damaged wing. I heard a great cracking and tearing as I tore the wing from his body. Then I was on my back when his tail lashed out and took my feet out from under me as the demon screeched in pain and rage. Then he was careening through the air after Illy struck him in the chest with a thrust of her horn. It had sank half way through his body, and he tumbled across the ground, striking a low stone wall... pulverizing it with the force of the strike, and barely slowing him. Then he was skipping across the ground at an obtuse angle when Ella Deathbringer unleashed a powerful blow when he rolled to a stop at her feet. With a great whupping sound, she had seemed to unleash the very earth through her fist, and Styche tumbled like a rag doll and slammed through the stone wall of an outbuilding. He staggered to his feet and stepped out of the damaged wall. He was panting, tired and hurt. Black ichor flowed freely from the hole in his chest and the stump where his wing had been torn from him. He screeched at us all, “You will pay for...” Then I heard the roar of what had to be a great bear, and Styche was again tumbling and skipping across the ground... toward me. I readied my staff as I just blinked dumbly at the blonde woman who was standing beside the damaged wall saying in a Slavic accent, “I've finished my nap, have I missed all the fun?” Ella spoke with that French accent she did at times, “Not at all Katrina, eet eez good to have you with us again.” Katrina? Wait, this was Goldilocks of legend? Then the woman who stepped up beside her was Gretel? I swung my staff down at Styche when he wound up at my feet, but his hand shot up and caught my blow. I could hear bones in his hand snapping, and his putrid flesh sizzled at the contact. He smiled at me and said, “You have the Sacrifice's favor. I saw how she protected you on the field. She will come for you.” Then he made a guttural sound and rolled at me. Grabbing me and we fell through the world itself. He had created some sort of portal
which he had pulled me through. And I had dropped my staff. It felt as if my body were being torn apart, frozen and burned all in the same instant as we passed through. I heard Yth's bellow of rage cut short as the portal closed behind us and the darkness consumed me.