by Al K. Line
Robin used her own unique twist on magic and beautiful snowflakes fell as she focused her attention above. A loud clap of thunder split the air and the fiery beauty landed on their heads. Each one it touched was screaming as the fractal magic sliced like razor wire through their flesh and bone and they too succumbed to our efforts.
But these were no weaklings and magic shot back at us, nearly killing Robin, saved only as I changed my focus and put up a quick protective shield that nonetheless allowed a little damage to seep through. Robin faltered for a moment, almost losing her footing.
Distracted, I had no time to see Pumi enter the fray, but it was impossible to miss now. He was certainly no ordinary shifter. Magic pummeled him but his hide soaked it up like energy and he grew larger and faster and more terrifying the harder they assaulted him.
He grabbed elves and ripped off limbs, using them to batter their comrades' heads in, only discarding them when the flesh was pulp and ineffectual.
He tore through them like paper, grabbing bodies and swinging one around by the feet, head slamming into the others, scraping across the floor as the elf screamed until his face was gone.
Zeno watched, aghast, as a small group came for him, but his resolve hardened and he too summoned magic I knew was not of his liking—he's a lover, not a fighter. But that innate beauty was corrupted for a while as he battled with his own kind, swapping specialized skills with foes that hated him as much as the rest of us. Zeno did well, body becoming a blur as he fought with hands and feet imbued with deadly force that literally went right through his opponents when he got a direct hit.
He was battered and bloodied but still going as the odds evened and Pumi rampaged through the remaining elves with utter abandon and no mercy whatsoever.
In the end we merely stood and watched as all focus was on him, the elves trying to stop their comrades falling but their assistance futile as Pumi grew ever more dangerous the more they tried to stop him.
With an unholy cry that sent shivers up and down my spine and made Robin clutch my hand tight, frowning at her clothes now covered in blood and bits of another species, we watched, unable to turn away as Pumi shot a misshapen arm out and grabbed a terrified looking elf's throat. With his free hand, calloused and clawed, he punched into its mouth, teeth shattering, then pulled hard on the upper jaw, while the other hand ripped away flesh and tendons at the neck. The head came off, and he stomped down hard on it, bone shattering like a fresh egg, and then it was over.
We stood there, Pumi a thing apart, massive chest heaving, naked and covered in gore. The thing looked around at the destruction then at us, and it bowed its head in shame.
I don't believe I have ever witnessed, or ever will, anything so sad in my whole life.
He changed back to the broken man he was and we went to him, all of us, and held him as he cried and we cried too, for our part in what had happened and for ourselves. For what we had done, what we had been made to do, to be, but mostly we cried for Pumi, the monster that had saved us all but lost himself a little more in the process.
"We need to end this now. There will be more of them and things are going to get out of control."
"What happened?" asked Robin. "Why were they after you?"
"I went to see Levick. He said he's being watched, that the elves killed the girl, just because she was pure, and that he had to follow along, pretend like it was Pumi so I would meet him and uncover the truth."
"What is the truth?"
"That's the problem, he left because they were after him so he never said. But you can bet it's big and you can bet it's happening soon if this is how they react to him saying anything. My guess is they wanted Pumi out of the way, which isn't surprising after this. They know what he's capable of, but clearly didn't know how he deals with magic. Hell, I didn't even know that was possible."
"I did," mumbled Pumi, looking deranged and still dangerous as hell.
"Come on, let's get cleaned up, quick, and then we'll go ask my mother." The thought turned me cold, but I was out of ideas, and if one person could get to the truth it would be her. I couldn't even remember the last time I had voluntarily gone to see her, usually it was a summons, and it never, ever, ended well.
"No, Sis, anything but that."
"We've got no choice. She needs to know and she might have answers. She'll feel things we never will, and that means she knows more than we do."
"Your mother? How would she be able to help?" asked Pumi, body still way too pumped up and virile after the berserker episode. I tried not to look. Robin did, and she nudged me.
"Because she's the Queen."
"Oh."
"Yeah, oh."
Avoiding the Queen
Robin and I are only a few years apart in age, and she is the eldest, but I always feel like it's me that is the one that takes charge of situations, although she probably thinks the same thing.
We differ in personality, though, that's for sure. She's bubbly and outgoing, I'm... just me, I guess. I can't do the crazy flirting she does, I can't bring myself to wear flowery clothes as I can get a call for work at any time and never feel right chasing down bad guys in a polka dot dress, and she annoys the hell out of me, and I her, and we love each other dearly.
Yes, we bicker, even argue ferociously at times, but for five centuries we have remained in contact, usually even lived in the same part of the world give or take a few decades, and have this connection that runs so deep it's scary.
And yet, when confronted with our mother, I know we both feel like little children.
Why haven't we done everything to distance ourselves from this woman, the Queen? Because she is family and the bond is strong, that's why. There's more, a lot more, and plenty neither of us can forgive her for, but we are family, and that counts for a lot.
For many, many years both of us were scared of her, maybe we still are, so to show our strength we rebelled against her authority when old enough to make our own way in the world, splitting up the family for a long time, but we all came back together, and since those early days it's somehow always ended up with us living relatively close even if it can be years without either of us going near the woman. I know it's messed up, and this stuff is hard to explain, but that's family for you. Don't tell me yours is any different. It is? Then lucky you!
"So you want to go see her?" asked Robin after she'd let me in and we'd sat down in her utterly over the top living room.
"What choice do we have?"
"We deal with this on our own like big girls and leave her the hell out of it."
"Robin, this is bigger than just us. She needs to know and she may be able to help."
"Fine." Robin pouted. She even looks pretty doing it.
"Look, I know how we both feel about her, and I know that what she did was wrong, but—"
"Wrong, it's disgusting and you know it. We were young girls, we didn't know what effect training at that age would have. That woman allowed us to use magic in ways that spoiled us, for ever, and I will never forgive her for as long as I live."
"Neither will I." We'd had variations on this conversation a thousand times over the years and neither of us could forgive her. She broke us, ruined us, took something that was not her right, not her decision to make. Yet she did it, knowing it would harden us, give us an advantage in the world. Fill us with power, make us two of the youngest ever fully trained witches with more experience and prowess than adult women who still struggled with simple magic use. Not us, we were hardcore from the get-go, and she made sure of it.
"I'll be civil, but that's it." Robin stood. We went to go see our mother.
Pumi, dressed in clothes borrowed from kind neighbors, and Zeno were waiting outside like I'd asked them to. There were things neither of them had a right to know about us yet, and this was family business. But we would all go together, apart from Mack who was still sleeping off his borderline illegal help from earlier. I knew, or hoped anyway, that the elves wouldn't attack him, as there was nothing to gain—you
cannot kill a demon, just make him angry, or sleepy, usually both.
*
The Queen doesn't stand on ceremony, but she commands respect. She took over a large building that ran at a right angle to the street where many witches were housed and gutted it, then converted it to suit her tastes.
Whilst well guarded, it is the inherent magic barrier maintained by a few close witches that really keeps her protected. Nothing gets in, or out, without her express permission. Nothing.
After dealing with the dolts at the entrance, we were shown inside, treated exactly the same as any others would be, probably because the staff wouldn't even know, or care, we were family—their job was to protect our Queen, and strangers like Pumi and Zeno would make them very cautious.
She was in her day room, where she spent time if not involved in the business side of running things for our world. She's no slacker and has a hand in much of the goings-on of Strange and Normal alike. I guess if you wanted to you could call her a cutthroat businesswoman, with holdings in property, stocks, manufacturing, shipping and who knows what else, and she has built up a massive business empire over the centuries worth many millions, maybe billions. I neither know nor care.
Yet she remained inside much of the time now, hardly traveling, allowing others to manage her businesses, and even Strange business, but she always knows what is going on. That's what interests her the most, watching and documenting in her mind how Strange progress through the ages. How we grow, how we fail, mostly how we cope.
She is cold, utterly ruthless, and incredibly powerful, and she protects us. She is also our ruin.
"I understand you had some trouble?" said the Queen, lounging on a sofa with her legs up, looking, as always, timeless, beautiful, and impossibly composed.
"You could say that. Look, we can't stay and chat, things are crazy out there. What do you know about Levick being watched and the elves up to something. It's to do with the Rift, isn't it?"
Robin shifted uncomfortably next to me, Pumi and Zeno seemed dazed and confused by the shift from fighting to talking to a woman that appeared to be chilling out while the world went mad. They were both ready to collapse at any moment, only the uniqueness of the situation keeping them upright.
"My dear, are you not going to give your Queen a kiss, and say hello? And who are these young men? Won't you introduce me?"
"This is Pumi and this is Zeno."
"An elf and a monster, what fine company you keep." She stared at the two men, seeing so much more than I knew I ever could. They both shifted, feeling the weight of her gaze, understanding that she saw into their souls as she studied them like specimens, rather than as living creatures with lives, worries and concerns doing their best to help me, help all of us.
"Answer the question. What's wrong with you?" said Robin, her beauty ruined for a moment by the spite on her face.
"Oh, Robin, my dear, can we please be civil. I have missed you both dearly, why do you never come to visit me?"
"You know why," I said.
"We can't stay here," said Pumi. "We need to get a move on and do something. There will be more elves coming, you can count on it. What about Levick, you say you trust him now, that he was being played? I don't like it but where is he?"
He was right, and we shouldn't be wasting time, but we needed answers, information, and she would have it, I was sure.
"He'll be fine," said the Queen, as if it didn't matter. She was being weird, even by her standards.
"Just tell us what is happening. Don't you care?" I'd had enough of her act. Did she know, or didn't she?
"Fine, if you are going to be all business and not say hello properly then I shall tell you. The elves are up to something, but I don't know what, and Levick has been trying to find out the truth. They are watching him, monitoring our communications, so he took it upon himself to get you two together as Pumi here is involved because of the girl. I guess he thought you could uncover the truth, and fast."
"So you basically have no idea what is happening, just that something is? That's just great, Mother." I don't know who was more shocked. Me, Robin, or the Queen. All three of us stared at each other, saying nothing. We do not call her Mother. She doesn't deserve that kind of affection.
So, of course, she ruined her chance of closeness and a step toward something more than we'd had for the longest of times.
Zeno shifted beside me, and before I could turn to see what he was doing the Queen flung out a hand from where she stood across the room. Blood spurted across my cheek, warm and wet, the metallic taste on my lips, the smell so familiar. I was utterly sick of it all. I wanted to rage against the world, be left alone and for things to be nice. I wanted to lock myself away and never see another person and for everything to be quiet and for nobody to die ever again.
But that didn't happen, and rage built along with magic and I almost lost myself to it and destroyed the woman that had killed my friend. I watched as the world moved in slow motion while blood pumped from a hole in Zeno's neck as he toppled sideways.
Zeno crashed to the floor. Dead.
"What the hell are you doing? You killed him, he's dead. You murdered him," I screamed, magic forgotten, body moving automatically. I lunged for the Queen, ready to rip her to bits.
She just stood there doing nothing, immobile. I bounced back from her protection and watched this stranger, this cold-hearted bitch, this thing that was my mother, as she shrugged, like she'd swatted a fly. "You're such foolish children. Have I taught you nothing? Have you learned so little after all these years? He got what he deserved. He is not our friend, and now he is where he belongs."
Nothing made sense, the world was nothing but confusion and misery. Robin was dazed, in shock at the sudden brutality, and Pumi, he was ready to attack but kept his human form.
The Queen turned her gaze to us and raised her hand.
Traitor
With a perfectly manicured finger she pointed at the body of Zeno, blood pooling on the expensive rug, and hissed, "Watch."
Anger turned to horror and confusion as the lifeless form of Zeno changed before our eyes. His outer beauty was gone, in its place a much older and wizened elf showed itself. Wrinkled, hair faded and brittle, skin mottled and lacking luster that was never really there.
"Maybe you should introduce me to all your friends before you invite them into your home." The Queen turned away from us and busied herself with a phone that vibrated on a small table. She listened for a moment then said, "Let him in," and hung up.
I didn't know what to do, what to say, but this old man, truly ancient to show such signs of aging, slender knife in hand, the magic inside of it dying with him, he'd manipulated me, got close to me, and for what? All to wait for a chance to get at the Queen?
"He fooled me. He's been waiting all this time, just to get to you. Use me to kill you."
"I am the Queen, in case you've forgotten."
"How could I? What now?" I couldn't even begin to think about this. Events were moving too fast to keep straight and I was exhausted, hunger rising and taking hold even as the thought made me feel sick. How could I think of food when a man I had known so long, got so close to, had turned out to be nothing but a dark elf in disguise and probably powerful enough to have taken me at any moment?
Men, you can't trust them even when they are elves!
"Are they here? Ah, good," said Levick as he burst into the room, looking worse than earlier, drenched in the blood of elves.
"Levick, what is the meaning of all this? What have you been doing? Have you found out what is happening?" demanded the Queen.
Levick took in the scene, our shock, Zeno dead on the floor, and then said, "What? No. But now they know we're looking into them you can bet they'll be moving as fast as possible to do whatever it is they're planning."
"And what is that, Levick?" She was getting impatient, like we were disturbing her peace, but I knew her better, knew she would be frantic inside. She hates being in the dark, more than a
nything.
"I don't know. If I knew then I wouldn't be running for my life and you'd tell me what to do. You wanted your daughter involved in this, against my wishes I might add, and now all hell has broken out. This is your fault."
The Queen was stunned, Levick too. You didn't speak to her like that, ever, not the likes of Levick. Me and Robin, yes, but not a mere employee, however high up.
"I did what I had to do, to get this mess cleared up. Swift is more than capable of looking after herself and if not then..." She said no more, but I knew what she was going to say.
"Then you'll just have another one, right?" Ugh, this witch.
Such a peculiar woman. I don't think she feels proper emotion any longer. These things that happen in our lives, they are like momentary distractions to her. She told me once, many years ago, that although she will always do what she can to protect us Strange, her family, it is different for her and she cannot get as emotional as the rest of us.
She has lived so long, who knows how long, that events are just little inconveniences in a long line of history reaching back so far that she knows our kind will always survive somehow, in some way, and that whatever happens that is a certainty. So she is detached, watches, interferes, sure, but never truly cares, not any longer.
Parents, eh? You can choose your friends but you can't choose your family. Though I hadn't done a very good job of choosing my friends, as one of them was dead and a traitor.
A strange silence took hold. Nobody said a word, and I think we all expected that if we spoke we'd be ripping each other's throats out.
"Let's go," said Robin.
"Good idea." I turned to the Queen. "I'll fix this, now you've decided I'm involved whether I like it or not. To protect us all, to protect my sister, to protect the city, and everything else. But if you ever, ever, use us again like we are your little playthings to manipulate for your own sick enjoyment and as another little tale to add to your list, then you will never see me again, do you understand me?" I was shouting, losing it, close to the edge.
