Chapter 20
“What Doesn’t Kill You”
In Destillion, there was no sunshine nor rain – only a deathly gray haze that fell over the city. The citizens could feel intense dismay in the air that forced silence through the once bustling streets of business and culture. Words were hushed in whispers and eyes regularly scanned the skies to await an appearance from Guardian. Somehow each and every human knew something dangerous was stirring in their world and the balance had been disturbed. Birds did not chirp, snakes did not bask, and fowl did not cluck. If it were quiet enough, one could hear a deep plangent hum pulsing from the ground like a slow heartbeat.
There was no wind to catch the flags atop the palace’s spires and they fell flat against their poles. Above the overcast, there was a faint green glow burning above the clouds over the palace. Electricity spiked the dry air that would raise the hair on a person’s arm. Despite the usual desert heat, the temperature was starting to drop and became chilly enough to cause people to shiver and light their fires early. Something strange was brewing within the palace walls.
Candlelight no longer glowed yellow inside Nacre’s palace; it was an unnatural pale green that failed to illuminate the shadows. Corners were darker than ever, and a horrible ominous whisper echoed through the mirrored halls. The light pulsed with the humming of the ground in sync and made the mirrors vibrate. Guards were silent and stood stiller than statues – afraid to move an inch from their place while their queen conducted a ritual dark and foreign. They stood at the ornate doorway of a room deep within the palace where windows couldn’t allow light inside. Despite the doorway being covered with thick white curtains, they could see a bright green pulsing light shine through the fabric.
Through the curtains was the tallest room in the palace. Its eight walls were impressively polished mirrors and angled to reflect the center perfectly. The ceiling climbed to a high a solid stone dome decorated with a regal chandelier made of clear quartz crystals and citrine gems. Each pulse of light from the candles resting on the floor refracted off the gems and sparkled radiantly around the room – only to be reflected again and again through the mirrors in powerful surges of magic.
Nacre was on her knees surrounded by the green-lit candles with two mummified male corpses on each side of her. She wore no clothing nor shoes or jewelry and was wrapped in live snakes that formed enough coverage to conceal her body. They slithered around her torso and hugged her chest and hips while others coiled around her arms and thighs. A large cobra held her hair back in a ponytail while its hooded head rested on her crown like a worthy jewel that demanded respect and fear. The snakes seemed comfortable and compliant in dressing the dark sorceress as she cast her dark spell.
Her head had been tilted back while her eyes rolled to the back of her skull as she hummed and mumbled dark and deadly words into the air. Her arms were outstretched to allow each hand to hover over the chest of the corpses on each side. They had been dressed in old armor painted in Destillion’s colors with sickle swords resting on their rotted chests. Their mouths were agape with decay and revealed old, yellowed teeth that barely hung onto the dried gums. Their eyes no longer existed and left only empty sockets of pitch black. Their fingernails were long and cracked, their skin was black and leathery, and they barely had a few strands of hair left on their skull after their scalps had flaked off long ago. One corpse wore the insignia of a hawk on their armor while the other wore a jackal.
Nacre spoke louder and longer while the fires of the candles whipped upwards and elongated like a thread. The green flames slithered around the sorceress and passed through her nostrils as she inhaled before leaving her mouth to take the form of two deadly serpents that hissed wildly with blazing green eyes. The fiery serpents split up and entered the mouth of each corpse. As the green serpents entered the corpse’s mouth, their chests ignited bright green and expanded to inhale. Dust blew upwards from their mummified throats, followed by dry groans of intense suffering.
Their creaking bones cracked, and their bodies shivered weakly while they tried desperately to speak but possessed no tongue to do so. They couldn’t see and fought to turn their ancient and stiff necks. Their fingers flexed around their sword handles, but their skin was so brittle that it split away from fingernails and bone alike. Nacre’s diabolical necromancy brought the corpses to miserable and painful life and a smile formed over her lips.
“Drown me, will you, Captain?” She laughed deeply. Though she could not see the Captain, she could hear his voice through the serpent swimming within Cariphae’s wound. It was interesting to know that he was somehow aware that she could hear him. As renowned as Captain O’Dweller was, she still knew little about him to where he could still surprise her.
Then, the roll of sudden thunder shook the palace floors and forced the candlelight to flicker. The slight interruption of the calm atmosphere caused the corpses to writhe and flinch as Nacres focus had been briefly broken. She had been expecting Guardian’s return and simply closed her eyes while her smile intensified enough to reveal a pair of sharp curved fangs. Her eyes remained rolled back but she could sense where the demi-god had appeared.
‘Right on schedule.’ She thought.
Heavy boots pounded the polished floors in a hurry while the slamming of broken armor on marble echoed in the eerily silent hallway. Having been battered and soaked from the Captain’s tidal wave, Guardian flounced past multiple guards and left a trail of seawater and pieces of armor behind him. He wore nothing but his pants, boots, and vest after his armor had been bent and shattered beyond repair. Bolts of electricity discharged from his arms and tore into the walls and floors in a vicious display of frustration. The guards did not stand in his way and allowed the wrathful tyrant through.
“Nacre, you half-witted witch!” Guardian boomed in his duel-tone voice that rattled the walls. He ripped at the curtains blocking the doorway and threw them to the side before storming the room. He saw the ancient sorceress wrapped in snakes on her knees and noticed how his entrance didn’t make her flinch or turn to see him. The snakes around her body however snapped their eyes in his direction and hissed unanimously with dripping venomous fangs.
“Guardian, you seem upset.” Nacre smirked and placed her palms on each of the corpses next to her. Guardian pointed his finger at her and gnashed his teeth tightly together.
“Your plan failed miserably! You insisted that we allow that flea-bitten sorcerer to take part in our plan, and he helped her escape! Do you have any idea what I have just endured because of your negligence?!” Guardian roared.
“My plan worked flawlessly. It was your impatience that whittled away any chance of talking her to your side. Not everything must be solved with force.” Nacre softly chuckled.
“My impatience?” Guardian asked with a twitch in his eye.
“Killing Arithmetia’s beloved Royal Advisor and mutilating its General was impulsive for instant gratification. You were acting like a child who lost his favorite toy. You could have manipulated them, all of them in fact. The Valaah valued you, and now all that value has burned away when you declared your actions to every ear. It is you who is the halfwit.” Nacre said matter-of-factly. Guardian growled and pounded his fist into a mirror on the wall – shattering it and raining glass down to his feet.
The sound of shattering glass made the sorceress perk up her head and turn it halfway to capture him in her peripheral. The snakes wailed and coiled tightly around their master when the glass shattered. They could feel Nacre’s chest expand with a deep inhale and felt her heartbeat spike. Something about the broken mirror made Nacre feel a twinge of anger – an emotion she hardly felt. Her shoulders tensed and there was a deep hiss that escaped the depths of her throat when she exhaled. The shattered mirror deeply irked the woman more than any mere words could.
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“You dare mock me, sorceress?!” Guardian thundered.
“I mock no one when they mock themselves.” Nacre shot back before turning her gaze back to her reanimated corpses.
“The sand has eroded your sanity, woman, your guidance has led to nothing but failure and I am finding little reason to allow you to continue living.”
“My guidance has allowed you to reign as the most beloved being among the human race. I gave you the chance to prove your worth to that woman you so tirelessly obsess over, and you villainized yourself to her people because of your inability to control your anger. My guidance also removed Virgoth from power, but your lack of self-control destroyed any trust Cariphae may have had in you. I might regret it now considering Virgoth was always the better listener of the two of you. He heeded every word of advice I gave until it led him to his capture. The poor thing must be so thirsty, and yet even that is in your favor.” Nacre clicked her tongue against her teeth.
“A few small accomplishments and yet, I still don’t have my Rexium.” Guardian opened his arms to display the metaphorical emptiness surrounding him.
“You still don’t understand after all these years. When the Rexium created the world, it also created you. You are meant to serve the Rexium and protect it. It is the most powerful being in this world and the only one strong enough to kill you. You simply cannot control it by force no matter how powerful you think you are. She could undo everything we have worked for, and you still continue to succumb to your irrational impulses – impulses that will certainly turn her against you like killing her friends. Containing a threat of that magnitude takes careful planning and time, yet I am the absent-minded one? I have her weak, I have her powerless, all you must do is find her. You did just that and still your bloody impatience persists to cause failure. Why must you be such a fool?” Nacre explained with her eyebrow cocked to one side.
Guardian was silent as he looked away. There was shame in his eyes when he couldn’t admit that hearing the truth stung more than he wished it did.
“You fear her.” Nacre softened her tone.
“I do.” He admitted quietly.
“I pity that fear, Guardian, I truly do. To have all this power and still be the lesser creation of Endle.” Nacre slowly stood to her feet and turned to face the man. “I wish it were not so, but it simply is your reality. I want to change your reality.”
“Now that Adamus has her, she will learn the truth. I cannot travel the seas; My power weakens greatly at the shore.”
“And so, you return to me for guidance once more.”
“I have no choice.” Guardian growled bitterly.
“My poor, sweet Preasidion. So engulfed with frustration and rage.” She sympathized as she reached out her hand to him. He took her hand with slight hesitation and let her pull him close to the corpses that he now realized were reanimated and gasping painfully for air with no lungs to fill.
“What is this? This is forbidden.” Guardian looked disgusted by the sight of the bodies shaking and twitching next to his boots.
“This is why you need me. These men were some of my finest servants alive when they were. . . well, alive.” Nacre giggled and pointed to the corpse on his right. “Ankh – the finest captain who fared both river and sea in Destillion’s earliest days. Shen – the most educated cartographer who mapped the entire northwestern seas. Together, I think they will be able to provide everything you need to hunt down that troublesome Captain and capture Cariphae before she finds out the truth.”
Guardian looked skeptical at the sight of such pitiful rotten bodies and kicked one in the arm to test its reflexes.
“I fail to see how these bones could offer any assistance.” He scrutinized.
“You’re not looking close enough, Guardian. Look harder.” Nacre replied before shoving Guardian down on one knee by the shoulder. He didn’t fight her, but he looked as if he wanted to avoid touching the rotten corpses. “All they need is a spark of life, one you possess. They are indeed mindless, which is why they will do anything you command.” Nacre knelt beside Guardian to whisper her poison into his ear.
“You knew I was going to fail. You had them ready for me.” He scowled at the corpses, realizing how intuitive Nacre truly was. As much as he desired to behead her, he couldn’t deny that she knew him better than he knew himself. It disturbed him and yet comforted him at the same time. No other soul in Endle besides Cariphae knew him the way she did nor could predict him.
The demi-god closed his eyes as he deeply considered every option he had and came to realize that he didn’t have many left. Time was of the essence, and if spent poorly, the Rexium would return to undo him as it tried to before.
“Time is running out. She is sailing out of my sight and my ears have frosted over. They are traveling towards the eastern isles to a place called Isla Edista. You know this place, yes?” Nacre smiled, knowing Guardian couldn’t see her fangs. His eyes were too focused on the decrepit bodies to see anything else around him and he slowly hovered his hands above them.
“Isla Edista, I burnt it to the ground long ago… Even if she learns the truth, she will not escape again. This world will belong to me and my future kin that she will carry.” Guardian swore before igniting his hand with bolts of white-hot electricity. They fired off into the corpse’s chests and forced them to violently thrash and contort in unnatural ways that surely would’ve snapped their brittle bones. Instead, they inhaled and began to regrow old muscles and tendons at a rapid rate. Their bodies grew large and strong while their skulls cracked and reshaped into monstrous animalistic heads. Ankh grew the head of a snarling black jackal with pure silver fangs and Shen grew the head of a wicked falcon with a serrated beak made of gold.
Their armor expanded and reformed over their bodies to accommodate their new size which grew over fifteen feet in height and several hundred pounds in weight. Their nails sharpened and grew into terrifying claws while their legs snapped and formed digitigrade shapes – one with paws and one with talons big enough to crush a person beneath them with ease. Guardian breathed a new purpose within them as their eyes glowed as white as his. With Nacre’s necromancy and Guardian’s power, Ankh and Shen transformed into atrocious and feral beasts of servitude.
They leaned up and slowly stood to their feet to look down at their new master. Guardian was impressed by the look of confidence plastered across his face and he too stood to his feet while Nacre stayed crouched beside him. Ankh and Shen examined their hands as the last of their free will and humanity abandoned them – forcing them to kneel before Guardian with a fist on the floor. Nacre smiled and bit her bottom lip with excitement in her eyes while a snake slithered up the side of her face. She had finally accomplished a resurrection – a feat no other necromancer had ever achieved with such glorious results.
“Impressive.” Guardian complimented.
“That they are. My gift to you.” Nacre agreed seductively.
“A gift that pardons you for now.” Guardian said.
“Necromancy has its benefits, how shall it serve you?” Nacre chuckled.
“Build me a warship that will pierce the waves like a blade through flesh. Give it the speed it needs to catch an uncatchable ship and gather a crew of Ensanguined and humans. Deliver it to the shore and I need it built as soon as possible.” Guardian ordered. Nacre slowly stood to her feet and placed her hand on her hip while she examined her other hand closely.
“I will inform Queen Alana of your demands. Faemirian wood is remarkably strong, and her kingdom extends to the western shore. She has several naval ports in her control.” Nacre informed and it made Guardian grin.
“An alliance to the Three Queens of Malice has proven fruitful after all.” Guardian chuckled.
“Indeed, it has.” Nacre grinned maliciously and chuckled with him, then looked to one of her mirrors. Her eyes glowed brightly as she stared at her reflection and a shimmering of scales sparkled over her cheeks. A darkness loomed around the two as their combined laughter echoed not only through the palace halls but Destillion’s quiet streets as well.
The darkness would soon spread to not just Destillion, but throughout all of Endle. Destillion, Faemira, and Sheirun Hau shared that darkness as one and their combined power was no longer challenged. Without the Arithmetian Queen and her power over flame, the Ensanguined feared no one and flew freely from their dark, miserable dwellings. After quickly receiving word of Cariphae’s dethronement, thirsty Ensanguined emerged to feast upon humans and creatures without restraint. Guardian felt the sudden great loss of life as sunset choked the land but was too thrilled and preoccupied to come to their aid. He would spare them all and give them the slaughter they had been thirsting for. A gift for a gift.
The once mighty and noble Guardian of Endle had now abandoned his responsibilities and his purpose to serve his own selfish desires. He had deserted humanity and the oath to protect and serve. The cries and fears of the night would fall upon deaf ears and Ensanguined numbers would soon begin to rapidly expand. Balance and justice that once held on by a thread now tumbled into chaos uncontrollably. In only one bloody and barbaric night, Endle was subjected to so much cruel death that the warm ending of summer came to an unnatural halt – and the beginning of a fearsome winter the likes of which Endle had never seen would begin. There would be no fall, no harvest, no season to hunt or fish.
Without the regal flame of Arithmetia to uphold the balance, frost began to form on every blade of grass. Death was imminent to every life in the world both above and below. The heartbeat of Endle – Cariphae’s heartbeat – slowed to a pitiful pace.
The time of sorrowful darkness had begun.
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