by Megan Derr
Noire started to speak, but the sound of Etain's chilling laughter stopped him. At the base of the Sacred Oak, the jewels she wore had begun to faintly glow. "Of course he's still alive. He always dies at the end."
"That isn't true," Gael said. "My nightmares—"
"Are just that—nightmares. They hold no truths, save to remind you that it is your fault he always dies. That if you just left him, abandoned him, all would be well. But you never listen!"
Power poured off of her, radiating out, and Noire braced for the blow—and it never came, because he felt Gael take it, cancel it. "Enough, Etain! It does not have to be this way! You are the reason everyone dies, you and you alone. Have all these centuries of failure taught you nothing?"
"I will succeed," Etain snarled, throwing out more power when Freddie and Ivan both tried to move in. "Stay where you are!"
Freddie swore. "Just stop, Etain. It's over. Already this ceremony is different from all the rest. Those jewels will not help you, no matter what power they contain."
"They contain enough," Etain said coldly. "If nothing else, I can still set the tragedy to begin again. Can't I, kitten?"
"What are you talking about?" Gael demanded, moving to stand protectively in front of Noire. "Leave him alone."
Etain laughed, the sound slicing through Noire like broken glass slicing through his skin. "Leave him alone? I think not. Why do you think I always leave him alive though I long to wipe his soul from existence forever? It is he who always starts the Tragedy anew. He who controls it."
Noire froze, fingers digging in where he'd been holding on to Gael. He swallowed. "What do you mean?"
"Yes," Gael said slowly, pulling Noire into his arms. Noire trembled and held fast, but even Gael's touch did not soothe him. "What do you mean?"
"Oh, I see the kitten has not quite remembered that yet," Etain said, smirking as sunlight began to pour down on them in earnest and the Sacred Oak began to bloom into life. The light caught her wings, made them shine and cast iridescent rainbow light across the lush grass of the Sanctuary. She held her arms out, and the door closed, sealed, trapping them all inside.
"Enough with your games!" Freddie snarled. "Kill us if you must, but stop playing games! You've played with people enough, Etain. Stop it!"
Etain gestured, and Freddie jerked as though struck, falling to her knees with a soft, pained cry and clapping her hands to her face as his nose began to drip blood. "I will do what I want. The power of nine is mine and the ceremony is upon us. Chaos may have entered this room on the wings of Zhar Ptitsa, but the jewels ensure it will go in my favor. You will return to me, brother, sister, lovers. I am tired of your defiance, your selfishness. We are the Triad, and ever shall we be. Defy me again and the Tragedy will only continue—unless you have the strength to destroy the soul that keeps the Tragedy replaying. Destroy him and chaos enters the game."
Noire shivered at her the look she cast him, swirling eyes glowing first green, then violet, then back to green. "Me?" he asked, voice shaking. "I'm—" Her eyes flashed violet again, and Noire screamed and pressed hands to his head as images suddenly flooded his mind.
Dead. They were all dead. Tears fell down Noire's cheeks as the realization sank in. There was so much blood. He bit back a sob, a need to scream, when he found Gael tangled together with the Faerie Queen and Pegasus.
How had it happened? Gods were gods; they couldn't die—not like this. He held Gael tightly and sobbed against his chest, desperate to feel a heartbeat that was no longer there.
A soft noise, someone struggling to say his name, brought Noire's head. He stared in surprise at the Faerie Queen—then realized she was alive. Thank the gods, she was alive! Everything would be all right! Reluctantly setting Gael down, Noire went to the Faerie Queen and helped her to sit up. "My Goddess, it will be all right. Let me help you, tell me what I must do."
She lightly touched his cheek, then slid her hand away to grip his shoulder. "Have you … ever heard … of a Curse of Fate?"
Noire frowned, wondering what curses had to do with anything. Was she delirious? He looked her over, but it did not seem like it, and so he only shook his head. It was not his place to question his Goddess, no matter the circumstances. "No, Goddess."
"It's the darkest of curses because it causes a fate loop, and such a thing affects not just those on whom it was cast, but everyone. It … ripples … you see."
"Goddess … "
"The people touched by the curse are forced to live the same life over and over. Same names. Same faces. Same choices. They must repeat their lives until a certain condition is met."
"That sounds horrible," Noire said. "I don't understand, Goddess. Is that what happened here? Did someone try to curse you and the others?"
She laughed, and it was the coldest sound Noire had ever heard. "That is what is about to happen here. Because of you—who stole my Unicorn and caused all this tragedy. It's your fault they're dead. You seduced away my Unicorn, who in turn convinced my Pegasus to fly away."
Noire tried to speak, tried to break free, but her nails were suddenly claws that sunk deep into his shoulder, and the glistening light in her eyes froze him in place. Her breath was sickly-sweet when she spoke, her lips so close to his he could taste the blood on them. "Curse of Fate I cast, Curse of Fate I bind to you. This day, this life, to live over and over again until the Unicorn and the Pegasus once more are mine. With your birth, the tragedy begins. With your death, it ends until it begins again. In threads of fate I bind you, bind all, and—"
She stopped, the last of the curse still on her lips as the last of her life finally slipped away. But she died too late to prevent the curse taking hold of him. Noire could feel it twining, binding. What was he supposed to do?
With your death, it ends …
Noire began to cry and abandoned the body of the Faerie Queen to crawl back to Gael. "What do I do?" he asked, wishing Gael were alive, wishing he'd been able to say goodbye—wishing none of it had happened, wondering how it had all gone so wrong when that morning it had all seemed so right.
"She didn't finish the curse."
Noire jerked his head up at the sound of another voice—an unfamiliar voice that went with the specter of an unfamiliar man. He was beautiful, with gold hair and eyes and skin warmed by the sun, dressed in simple breeches and shirt. Unfamiliar, but Noire realized who it must be by the way he glowed. "Lord Licht?"
"Only what remains of me," Licht said. "A fading light, as it were, Lost alongside my brothers and sisters. The casting of the Curse of Fate called me. She did not finish it, however. The fate loop has been put in place, but there is a chance."
"A chance?" Noire asked softly.
"She did not cast the most crucial part," Licht said. "She did not cast chaos out. If you dare to try, throw yourself into the loop, live your tragedy, time and time again—and try, each time, to break it. If my brothers are so convinced that chaos should dominate, let them prove it. Let them break the loop. End the tragedy, little panther. Let the whole mess begin again. Let us see what chaos can do."
He laughed: derisive, bitter, sad. A moment later, he faded away entirely in a shimmer of golden light.
With your death, it ends until it begins again.
Noire's gaze landed on a black-bladed knife, still caked with blood, lying near the Faerie Queen's body. He picked it up with one trembling hand. Bending over Gael, he gave the stiff, cold lips a last kiss. Drawing back, he lifted the knife and ended the tragedy to start it again.
Gael's scream of rage tore Noire from his memories. "You betrayer! You vile piece of bloody evil!" He pulled away from Noire and stormed toward Etain.
Sickly yellow light filled the room: bright, blinding, and painful. "You will cease to defy me!" Etain commanded.
"You will cease to poison us!" Gael bellowed, and though it clearly hurt him to defy her and blood poured from his nose, he pushed on. "I am the Unicorn, the purity of the land and life! Against all ills I protect it, and I've h
ad enough!"
At his words, new light flared—silvery and shimmering, drowning out the sickly light of the Faerie Queen.
"No!" Etain snarled, throwing out more power, her jewels burning with violet light. "I am the Queen, the Goddess, you cannot—"
"Stand down," Freddie said, her voice resonating, adding her own gold shimmer and making it impossible to see. "I am the Pegasus, the strength of the land and life. Against all abuses I protect it, and I've had enough!"
Etain screamed in rage and threw out still more power, brilliant violet battling against silver and gold. For a moment, she seemed to be winning, as Freddie and Gael were driven to their knees gasping in pain.
But then the Great Oak seemed to shake, and brilliant sunlight poured down in radiant, shining light, and the violet power of the Queen was drowned out, the entire Sanctuary overtaken by burning, blinding light.
Noire hid his eyes turned away, feeling the power on his skin. But then, slowly it began to fade. When he could no longer feel the searing heat of the light, Noire lowered his hand and cautiously opened his eyes.
When the last of the light finally faded back to normal, the Sacred Oak was lush with emerald leaves and the midday sunlight slipping through the branches fell across the three figures at its base: the Pegasus and Unicorn, and the Faerie Queen at their feet with the sharp point of the Unicorn's silvery horn at her throat.
He could feel the power emanating from them, and he forgot to breathe when, for a moment, Gael's silver eyes fell upon him. Gael's voice resonated through his mind. "It's over, Etain."
"I hate you," she said, staring straight at Noire when she said it. "Everything was fine until he saw you."
Noire said nothing, just looked away, unable to bear the loathing in her eyes.
"Nothing was fine," Freddie said, her wings moving restlessly. "We argued constantly. We avoided each other. I would not admit that I was in love with someone else and no longer in love with my siblings. I wish that events had not played out as they did, that our children were not the victims of our falling apart, but it was always going to end, Etain."
"No!" Etain snarled. "I hate you all! You're mine!"
"We were always yours, sister," Gael said. "You just would not see it because it was not what you wanted."
Etain said nothing, but on her back her butterfly wings, larger and more beautiful with her ascension to goddess, slowly turned dark violet. "Licht was right. Choice is a mistake. Everyone would have been happy if they had just accepted fate."
"No, Etain," Freddie said quietly.
"Enough of this. We're going in circles and I've had all I can take of that." Gael pulled away from Etain and lowered his horn all the way to the ground. It began to glow like moonlight, threads of silvery light pouring out to weave and wind through the grass and wrap around the White Beasts.
For a moment, everything was silent. Then all around them came soft groans, the rustle of fabric and grass, as one by one the White Beasts of Verde woke from their poisoned slumber.
Chapter Nineteen: Life
Ailill's head ached; he felt as he had that time he'd accidentally gotten into a brawl in a dubious dockside tavern in Piedre. What had happened to him? He dragged his eyes open, saw the glass roof of the Sanctuary, and it all came to back to him. Ivan was dead. The Faerie Queen was evil. He had to warn—
"Cat."
Ailill froze, then his vision blurred. He had to be dead. He hadn't woken up after all. "Vanya?" he asked, voice hoarse. He tried to speak again, but forgot how to entirely when Ivan knelt and pulled Ailill into his arms. He smelled like sweat, smoke, blood, and the sea—and he was soaking wet. Ailill just held on tightly. "Vanya."
Ivan said nothing, just drew back enough to kiss him—hard, bruising, desperate. All around them was shouting, the Beasts railing at the Triad, everyone raging at Etain. Ailill did not care. The only thing he cared about was the man in his arms.
Finally pulling back to draw breath, Ailill stared at Ivan, still not certain he was awake. "I thought you were dead. She said you and Noire had died, told me later when she poisoned me that she'd killed you. Set you up to be slaughtered …"
"One of the oldest tricks in the history of crime and I fell for it," Ivan said. "I'm still angry at myself for that." He kissed Ailill again, softer, lingering. "Noire and I took care of the beasts, though Noire paid a small price for it all. We had to swim the moat to get back, but we made it. I would have done whatever it took to make certain she did not kill you."
"I knew you'd come," Ailill said, and he wanted to say more, but the words stuck in his throat.
Ivan seemed to hear them anyway. "I am just glad to see you awake, beloved. You lay so still and there was nothing I could do …"
Ailill kissed him and held fast, burying his fingers in Ivan's hair. "All I could think about was you being dead. I didn't care about anything else, anymore."
"I'm alive, you're alive—the Tragedy is quite over, I think, though I think there is a tragedy yet to come. But—"
His words were drowned out by a booming crack of thunder. Lightning flashed, and the scent of ashes and roses filled the room. When the lightning faded, six men stood with the Triad by the Sacred Oak. Ailill stared at them a moment before realization sank in—and familiarity. It was impossible not to recognize Raz, who looked the same and yet entirely different as Zhar Ptitsa.
The trio of Kundouins could only be the Dragons of the Three Storms, and Ailill was surprised he knew them all: Captain Kindan, the merchant Raiden he had met only briefly years ago, and Prince Nankyokukai, whom he had never met but had seen before from afar. How had they become gods? Had they been the whole time, reincarnations like Gael and Freddie?
He also recognized Prince Culebra, but not the man—no, that was a woman—beside him. A companion of some sort to the Basilisk? Ailill wanted to cry to see all the gods except Licht gathered together. If only the cost of restoring the gods of Verde had not been so high. It was hard to be joyous when the Faerie Queen herself had been responsible for the destruction.
Raiden stepped forward, closer to the Triad; he was clearly the leader of the entire gathering. Pantheon, Ailill recalled. Once upon time they had been the Pantheon. "I am relieved to see you alive and well and returned to us, Guardians." His eyes flashed with lightning. "You, Faerie Queen, I could have done without. Your betrayal runs deep—too deep for there to be forgiveness."
Etain's eyes burned violet with hate. "My betrayal? I am not the only one here who is guilty of betrayal. I'm not the only one here who is directly responsible for the deaths of my siblings."
"Enough!" Nankyokukai cracked out, thunder rolling with his anger. "There is a difference between lives sacrificed for the good of all, as were our long-dead brothers, and cold murder committed in the names of jealously and hate."
"My brothers died for me," Raiden said quietly, dark eyes filled with pain. "You murdered yours and made the poison that killed the Basilisk."
Etain shrugged. "I am not responsible for how my creations are used."
"So you admit you made Licht the poison that he used to kill us?" Culebra asked.
Sneering, Etain replied. "Yes, I did. To slay the cowardly god of death who did nothing except whine and moan about how nobody loved him. Who possessed the most fearsome power of the nine and only languished in his stone temple bemoaning it. So good at complaining, snake, but not so good at doing anything about it."
Gael pressed his horn more firmly into her throat, drawing a thin trickle of blood. "Do you even begin to comprehend your own words? Your crimes? All who have died by your hand or by your negligence or by your cruelty? You are a god of life and yet you care nothing for life. This whole time, we thought it was Licht alone who tangled the world in his thread of fate, only to find that you are just as guilty. You gave him poison. You cast the Curse of Fate. All because you would not accept that things changed, a jealous rage. What happened to the sister I once loved, whom I once called lover?"
"You lost
her when you threw her aside to take up with a black cat," Etain said bitterly. "When you chose a little bat over me. You want to blame somebody for the state of our world? Blame yourselves, because the first betrayal was yours, Guardians."
"We are not without blame," Freddie said. "But do not place all of it upon us. We betrayed you and let our children down. But we did not go to your lengths. The matter should have remained with the three of us. We might have even forgiven the murders of us and the White Beasts, in time and with proper penance on your part. But to hand the entire world to Licht, to Teufel, by way of the Curse of Fate … and to feel absolutely no remorse for your actions …"
"How did he break it?" Etain demanded bitterly. "I did not finish the curse, but it still fought chaos for nine hundred years. I never succeeded, but I would have with the jewels. I don't understand how it turned in his favor." She stared hatefully at Noire.
"One sliver of chaos is all that is needed," Raiden said quietly, his midnight eyes somber. "You did not finish the curse, and that sliver of a chance eventually let my brothers pour their powers and their souls into me. My release brought even more chaos back to the world, and in due course, brought the birth of the child of chaos. Every life he touches, he frees from fate and changes forever. At some point, the child of chaos affected at least one person in this room. That was all that was needed to begin fracturing the Curse of Fate once and for all."
Zhar Ptitsa stirred where he stood, ember eyes glowing. "Many years ago, the child of chaos interacted with the not-quite born child of tragedy, and everything changed. Not so many years ago, another in this room was changed forever by the child of chaos. The Curse of Fate, never properly finished, never stood a chance from that moment on."
"Child of tragedy?" Ailill asked, and he followed everyone's gaze. "Noire? What have I missed?"
"A lot," Ivan murmured. "I'm surprised you don't know."
"My memories only go as far as the moment I died," Ailill said. "I don't know what happened after. I thought everyone died."
