by J. Stone
“What are you saying, Scarlett?” Ruby asked. “What would you have me do? I doubt we could flee anyway.”
“You will not flee!” Niada demanded. “You said you would take responsibility for your sister? Well, this is her doing. Honor your word and take responsibility!”
Scarlett ignored the headmistress. “I believe I could cast a teleportation spell.”
The idea appealed to Ruby, though she didn’t want to admit it. She couldn’t allow the darkness inside her to abandon these monks. They were after all innocents, and though they had showed her little respect, they had helped her find the answers she needed. Niada was right as well. This was her responsibility. Leina and the craggy hand demon had sent the soldiers after her. If she were to simply abandon the Cloister to them, she would be giving into the darkness that she had been fighting since her poisoning.
“I can’t leave them without trying to help,” Ruby finally answered.
“I won’t let you die,” Scarlett said. “If the situation deteriorates further, I will get you out of here.”
“You let your demon talk to you like that?” Niada asked with disgust scrawled across her face. “You will be all our ruin. You’re no better than your sister.”
The headmistress scowled while tossing her hand in the air, dismissing the princess’ very existence. She then left the pair of women, going back down the steps, mumbling as she went. Her silent and obedient demon followed with no particular emotion. Ruby leaned against the railing and looked out to the soldiers not far from the monastery’s walls. Scarlett stood beside her, placing her hand on top of the princess’.
“What is your plan?” the horned demon asked.
“I’ve got the goblins,” Ruby replied. “I’ll start there. See if I can spread the infection among their numbers. Then the monks can send their demons.”
“And should the monks fail?”
“Then, and only then, will I allow you to teleport me from here. I have darkened my soul too much since I was poisoned, Scarlett. I need to atone for what I have done. If I am able to save even one life, then it will begin to swing the scales back in the right direction.”
The demon thought this unnecessary and wasteful, but she would do as Ruby desired. “As you wish, my princess.”
The master and her servant waited in the bell tower, while the monks prepared below. The soldiers Leina had sent would arrive shortly, and the women could see the monks and demons running around frantically from their vantage point. Scarlett knew they were in no way prepared for what was about to hit them, and Ruby started to get that same sense.
Outside the monastery’s grounds, the soldiers marched on. The horned demon sensed something beyond a typical army of men, so she closed her eyes and tried to peer through them to see what their force might possess beyond mundane men with their iron and wood weaponry. Situated at the heart of the men was power she dared not imagine. Queen Leina had not simply sent an army of men and sharp sticks. She and her craggy hand demon had made the trip as well. The queen and her demon sat on a pair of thrones atop what almost looked like a cross between a carried litter and a cart. This transport had wheels on its bottom, but rather than pulled by horses, it had five wooden poles protruding from either side. Chained to each of these poles were two slaves each, a total of twenty men and women, pushing the queen and her demon forward alongside the soldiers.
Scarlett had compared herself to the demons of the Cloister which made her feel powerful, but even from that distance, she knew that she was nothing compared to the craggy hand demon that had bonded with Leina. She couldn’t imagine what he had done to Ruby’s sister to make him that powerful. She wasn’t sure that she wanted to know.
“My princess,” Scarlett began, “your sister and the craggy hand demon are among the army.”
Ruby looked stunned by the news. “What? They’re here?”
The horned demon nodded with pursed lips. “I’m afraid so. What are you going to do?”
The princess was silent for a moment, while she thought. What could she do, you might imagine. If she were to fight against the army, she would be putting not only herself, but her sister in danger. If she didn’t fight, the monks would undoubtedly be defeated. Hesitance and uncertainty froze her in that moment. It wouldn’t last. An explosive crash echoed down below, as a boulder slammed through the walls of the monastery, launched from some mechanical contraption of war. The battle had begun. Ruby didn’t know the correct course of action, so she did the only thing she could think of. She ordered her infected goblins to attack.
The dozen or so of the vile little creatures stood up from their seats at the wall of the Cloister, picking up their poorly made weaponry and cackling the same as they ever had. They each rushed forward, soon meeting the Lavidia army in battle. The soldiers slashed and stabbed many of the venomous little things, but this had little effect on the already dead goblins. The poisonous goblins had more luck, stabbing the men in the various weak spots in their armor and infecting them with the possessive poison. Ruby took control of them as well, turning the instantly dead men on their comrades. Her wave of venomous control spread quickly through the army, numbering nearly one hundred before she even had time to think about it.
After years in Nabiria, corrupting and torturing Leina’s good nature, the craggy hand demon was powerful, however. Without even standing from his throne, the demon waved his hand in an arc in front of him. Inside her bell tower, Ruby fell to the floor, her connection to all those she had infected severed instantly. Without her control, the dead bodies fell limply to the ground. Already killed by the infection, the craggy hand demon had simply removed the venom from them with a wave of his hand, forcing their bodies to collapse where they were.
Scarlett leaned down and helped her princess back to her feet. “My princess, we should go.”
“Not yet,” Ruby replied, wiping a streak of poison that had slid down from her nose. “The monks haven’t even sent their demons in yet.”
Scarlett knew nothing good would come of it. The craggy hand demon was far too powerful for what the monks had bonded themselves with. Nevertheless, she stood beside her princess and watched as they were sent into battle. Despite her prior expectations, some of the demons actually did fare quite well. If Leina and her demon had not joined the army, the monks may have had a chance. Things as they were though, she was not optimistic. She began mentally preparing for the teleport spell to get Ruby out of there. The sorcery of teleportation was quite complex, and it would take much from her. Afterward, she would be wiped out almost completely.
The monks’ demons tore through the lines of the soldiers. Some of them were quite enormous creatures, standing more than twice the height of a fully-grown man. They wielded powerful weapons, and some even cast spells on the men. One carrying a giant club swiped a row of the soldiers, tossing them back and onto the others in the army. Farther to that demon’s right, another aimed a beam of frost from its hands, covering more than thirty men in shards of razor sharp ice crystals. Those not cut by the fragments froze in place by the icy debris. Another demon jumped up, landed in the crowd of iced men, and smashed them with a large war hammer. It was obvious that Niada had sent her most powerful demons out first, as they were clearing a wide swath of men.
This too, however, would not last longer than the craggy hand demon allowed it. He deigned to stand from his slave-powered cart this time. He raised his red hand, fingers forward, toward where the fighting was thickest. There was no effect that flung forth from his fingers. No magical light or energy. The monks’ demons simply fell and died at his command. Ruby could see why she would need to know the true name for this terrifying demon now. Scarlett, alternatively, worried about having to go back into the nether realm to find such information.
The princess and her servant looked down from the bell tower at the monks below. The men and women who had controlled the fallen demons that had been fighting outside were killed by their connections. As their demons died, so did
they. Whatever Scarlett had thought of their weak bonds, it was still strong enough that they should share death in the end.
Convinced now that the monks stood no chance against this force, the horned demon turned to her princess. “Now’s the time, Ruby. We have to go.”
She frowned and looked to the ground. “I think you’re right. We can’t stand against that without knowing his true name.”
“Good. Hold my hand, while I work the incantation.”
“Wait! Not yet. We have to cover our tracks. The craggy hand demon can’t learn what we have planned.”
“What do you mean?”
“Niada. She knows what we’re going to do. They’ll torture her to get every bit of information they can. We can’t let that happen.”
“What are you suggesting we do? I don’t think I could teleport three people.”
“No… I… don’t know.”
Scarlett knew what Ruby wanted to say, so she said it for her. “We have to kill her.”
The princess looked up at her demon. The idea had been in her head, but she couldn’t allow herself to say it. Hearing it aloud made her feel disgusted, but she had no better plan. She’d been working hard to keep the dark thoughts at bay ever since she saw her sister. The princess could feel that insidious poison growing inside her once again. She was less concerned with quelling it now that she needed such a lack of emotion. She had to take an innocent life, so that she might survive long enough to save her sister’s. It was a deal she found herself willing to make.
“Yes, I know,” the princess simply answered.
Ruby ran down the spiral steps, followed by her horned demon, toward the bottom of the tower in an attempt to find Niada. Upon reaching the ground floor, the princess searched the area she had first found the headmistress in. No one was there. Everyone seemed to be outside in the monastery’s courtyard, so she too headed in that direction.
When she arrived outside, she could see that the fighting had finally entered the Cloister’s walls. Lavidia’s warriors were clashing with the monks and demons that yet remained. The hard metal of the soldiers smashed against whatever weak implements the monks had on hand. Screams and yells replaced the serene nature of the Cloister’s courtyard. The smoky smells, too, had gone. The odors the princess inhaled now were from the battle. Destroyed debris wafted about, and the scent of blood filled the air. The Cloister was a place of absolute chaos. Ruby couldn’t find Niada in all the confusion, and she would be lucky to find her before a soldier sliced her open. She would have to find another way.
“We must go,” her demon entreated. “If you die here, it will all be in vain.”
“One last thing,” Ruby replied.
A monk stood in front of her, catching her breath. The princess looked at her with pity and remorse for the action she was about to take. Reluctantly, Ruby stuck the tip of her finger in her poisonous mouth, coating it in the same infection she had spread through the goblins and soldiers, and then pressed it to the back of the woman’s neck. The innocent monk died instantly, but Ruby took control.
The princess then turned to Scarlett and said, “Okay. Get us out of here. She’ll do the rest.”
The horned demon nodded and took Ruby’s hands in her own. She closed her eyes and muttered the incantation as quickly as she could. Both women felt caught inside a tornado of energy, almost like the toxic maelstrom that the princess had manifested back in Gloomport. This, however, was a spiraling gust of pure magic. Their dresses and hair blew with the wind, and Ruby too, closed her eyes, as it was too painful to even try to squint through the chaos. The energy soon subsided, and the pair of women both opened their eyes to find they were at the base of the enormous Rashtalg Mountains. Scarlett had done well, but the magic expenditure exhausted the demon who toppled to the floor.
“Scarlett?” Ruby asked, kneeling down with her demon.
“I’m alright,” she replied. “Just… need to rest. Finish what you must.”
Her demon was right. She still had one thing left to do before they could focus on climbing the mountain and claiming the bracelets from the members of the Glow. She had to infect and kill Niada. She closed her eyes, and her mind shifted back to the battlefield that was the Cloister. She took full control of the monk that she had infected before she left. Luckily, the craggy hand demon was still quite far away, and he had not removed the infection as of yet. She was certain he still could, so her time might be short. She had to get to the headmistress as quickly as possible.
Ruby found that when she had infected the monk, she had also taken claim over the woman’s demon. Flipping through the pages of the woman’s mind, the princess found that her name was Ada, and her demon was Lonny. Ada was a middle-aged woman with dark brown hair and wearing the same blue robes as the rest of her fellow monks. Her face was covered in small freckles, as were her bare arms, exposed through the folds of the blue fabric.
Lonny was a strangely lithe demon. It was clearly built quite differently from a human, as the smallest section of its torso was only about the width of a fist. Ruby wasn’t quite certain if the demon was intended to be male or female, as it had neither gender’s sexual characteristics. Lonny was quite tall, and when it stood directly up, was a good foot over most of the humans fighting nearby.
Lonny peered out over the melee, searching for Niada. The headmistress was nowhere in sight. The princess knew that if she were to find the old woman, she would have to expand her search. She would have to make more sacrifices.
Dividing her mind in two, Ruby forced both the woman and her demon to spit up the poison on their own hands and charge into the melee. Both Ada and Lonny spread the venomous infection through the battle even more quickly than the goblins had. The princess’ spreading toxin killed and took over monks, demons, and soldiers, but she still had yet to find Niada, the one person who needed to die before the craggy hand demon found her. Ruby was surprised to discover that she was willing to sacrifice the whole monastery if it meant preserving her secrets. She tried telling herself that it was in the monks’ best interest to let her kill them rather than the death by torture at her sister’s hands. It didn’t really help. With every additional death she added to her toll, she felt the kind, generous woman she had once been slip away from her.
After the possessive plague spread through almost the whole of the Cloister, it became clear that the headmistress was not there. Ruby paused her direct control, letting the autonomous poisons direct the infected for a moment. She perused through each of their minds, searching for a clue as to where Niada had vanished to. She caught glimpses of the old woman and her demon, Adamen, and slowly pieced them together to form a moving picture of what had happened. The headmistress had left the monastery, charging straight out with Adamen, to confront the craggy hand demon. That could be disastrous for Ruby, she realized. The closer her infected got to him, the more likely he was to dispel her possession of them.
Lonny was the fastest demon she had thus far inhabited, so Ruby chose it to follow Niada. The lithe demon ran as quickly as it could through the melee, swiping its poisoned hands across the skin of all those it passed. With each addition to her poison army, the princess commanded that they follow after Lonny and help it to take down Niada. The thin demon could now see the headmistress and her own demon not far in front of her, but she was quite near the rolling litter on which the craggy hand demon and Leina sat. Niada wielded a spear of some design against all the soldiers in her path, slicing them down and moving ever nearer to her quarry. Ruby couldn’t allow this woman any closer to Leina and her demon. If Niada were to kill either, she would kill both. If she moved too close, Ruby’s infection might be washed away, allowing the headmistress to be tortured for information. There was no good choice for her. She had to hurry.
After clearing several soldiers from their vicinity, Adamen lifted his master up in the air and hurled her toward the craggy hand demon. Niada held her long spear in such a way that a blow was imminent. The craggy hand demon did n
ot shift. Seeing her final chance to stop the old woman, Ruby forced Lonny to spit forward a globule of the infected poison. The speed at which it was pushed out was incredible. It rushed past the soldier, monks, and demons towards its intended target. Before Niada could strike her blow, the venom landed on the back of Adamen’s head, infecting the demon and in turn infecting the headmistress. Ruby gained control over Niada and forced her to drop her weapon. She landed with a thud on the litter, next to the craggy hand demon. Leina’s demon then looked down at the infected old woman and snapped his fingers, causing the princess to lose her connection to all of the possessed monks, demons, and soldiers.
Chapter 28. Rashtalg
Ruby collapsed beside her demon, exhausted from controlling the possessed monks from so far away and horrified at herself for the rampant death she had just caused. “What have I done?”
“Did it work?” Scarlett asked, rising up and looking at her princess, whose head was pressed firmly into the ground.
“I killed all those monks… I don’t even feel it...”
“You did what you had to, my princess.”
“I slaughtered them…” Ruby swiveled her head in the dirt to face Scarlett. “The Hendriks were right about me. This thing is destroying me.”
“How are you feeling?”
Ruby kind of chuckled in response. “Not great.”
”Do you need some poison?”
“That’s not what I meant. I killed all those people.”
Scarlett shrugged. “They would’ve died either way. Your health is what concerns me, not their deaths.”
A cold wind rushed by them.
Ruby raised herself off the ground, resolving herself to the task at hand. “Think you could pull some clothes and shoes through? This hood isn’t going to do much as we go up.”
The horned demon nodded. “I’ll need to cease with any spellwork for a while, but I can do this much at least.” Scarlett reached her hand into the depths of space to retrieve a heavy coat and leather-lined boots. She gladly handed them over to her princess, eager to help. She then pulled through a long coat and boots for herself.
