----------------------------------------
Aelrindel, of Edlenn
Lady Lenar,
Moon of Dan,
'Nesande’s Shade Moon' Daughter
Don’t go there
----------------------------------------
----------------------------------------
Altered cadaver, bears no gifts.
The grey and white Osprey ruffled its feathers, large yellow eyes turning to the south. It opened its black beak wide, but despite putting the effort in didn’t make another sound.
What do you mean? Aelrindel asked looking its way. What are you doing here silly bird?
The sea-hawk blinked, dark wings pressed on its scrawny body resenting the affront.
He’s coming, it told her in the ‘voiceless tongue’ and flew away. Aelrindel narrowed her eyes alarmed, but Lithoniela’s chuckle rang down the row of caravan’s wagons whisking her attention away.
“The cat?” A guard asked appearing perturbed.
“You think that mule talks?” Melon admonished him looking up annoyed. “The dude is a fucking idiot!”
“Hahaha!” The other guard guffawed, thrilled at the perceived ‘trick’.
“Right,” the first one said. “That’s a neat one, I give ye that. You lassies are in a troupe, or something?”
“Yes. We are touring the Realm,” Zilyana replied keeping a straight face. “This lovely lady plays the Imperial princess twice a week. I’m her knight. Do you boys want to see my armour?”
Seriously?
“Didn’t know we had one of those,” The caravan guard admitted and stared at the chuckling Lithoniela. “Are you girls going to Sadofort?”
“We will stay at the Queen’s Oasis and then return to Rida,” Zilyana explained and Aelrindel forced herself up with an angry hiss. Leaving the cool shade wasn’t in her intentions. Faelar and the Cofol soldiers that had escorted them in their trip, were talking with the caravan leader twenty meters away.
“There’s a campaign in progress,” The hired guard warned them. “But no one knows who is winning, or not. Stay in the palm trees lassies.”
“Gratitude for the advice,” Aelrindel said approaching, after first muting Melon. The cat started running around chasing his tail and rolling in the sands as if he’d gone completely insane. “We have our own campfire all set up,” This she addressed to the two Zilan knowingly.
“We are going to the lake next,” Zilyana told her and Aelrindel breathed once sharply, pausing to glare at the shamelessly gawking at her breasts guard.
Then again it is a sheer robe this, Aelrindel yielded in the man’s defense.
The desert heat atrocious and he’s standing afore a goddess.
It’s to be expected.
“Ma’am,” The Cofol said with a head nod and followed his friend back towards their tents.
“He was very aroused,” Lithoniela noticed evenly.
“Rock solid,” Zilyana agreed, skin gleaming on purpose.
Aelrindel rolled her eyes and let out a small groan of despair.
“Shit,” Melon was heard saying, sounding worried. “Swallowed somethin’ but it’s still moving! That’s too many legs,” Adding a moment later, fully panicked. “Get it out of me for fuck’s sake! HELP!”
----------------------------------------
----------------------------------------
“The Princess is lively,” Faelar commented dryly an hour later. The sun still hadn’t set over the oasis. The lake’s waters cool where the small river emptied itself inside and stirring. The trees and nature beaming in the fading light.
“Slowly getting out of her shell,” Aelrindel replied and washed her face with a wet cloth slowly. “What news of Ralnor?”
“Nothing.”
“Has the Prince reached Altarin?”
“It’s a slow moving host,” Faelar said.
Right.
“Is Sadofort under the Khan’s control yet?”
“Prince Nout’s forces are ten kilometers to the west,” Faelar replied and snapped his head hearing a branch break. “Well outside the walls.”
No it is not, she translated.
“What’s taking them so long?” She blurted out, before she’d time to stop herself. “Just give me a simple reason,” Aelrindel added quickly.
“Nothing simple to it, but I can elucidate. The desert is naturally flat, open terrain. The force behind the walls holds every advantage, but for the numbers,” Faelar explained almost ready to launch another lengthy diatribe on siege warfare.
Just kill me now with all this. It’s dreadfully boring Faelar.
Please stop.
“I’ll try the waters,” Aelrindel said clearing her throat and stared at the former Imperial Rangers commander to give him a hint that she needed a little privacy.
“Have you taken a lover yet?” Faelar asked, showing no intention of leaving.
“Ahm, no I haven’t,” She replied, her species bluntness something she’d grown unaccustomed to after living in the Prince’s court for so many years.
“How about the Princess?” Faelar continued ever persistent. “I’ve been appraised that there is talk in Dan,” He added. “And I imagine suitors for both of you will soon arrive. I put forward myself of course, citing several centuries of service to both King and Queen.”
And several centuries of treason and defiance to the latter’s laws, she thought.
Aelrindel licked her lips in awkward silence. “You are not of sufficiently good stock to mate with the Princess Faelar, or myself for that matter.”
How do you like my candor you plebeian bully?
“I don’t care about the Princess,” Faelar admitted unhurriedly. “But in either case, the assembly will vote on what’s available, with all the respect to the Moon’s daughter,” The Zilan added looking at her. “You are both needed to produce offspring Aelrindel, enrich the pool, else the bloodlines will stagnate and weather away. Who will handle the Wyverns then? Why, a plebeian might even sit the gilded throne.”
Aelrindel gulped down slowly.
“I shall take my swim alone Faelar,” she told him sternly.
Get the fuck away old prick.
Faelar grimaced, thought about it and finally decided to give her space with a curt nod.
----------------------------------------
----------------------------------------
Rin.
A girl chuckled innocently.
No, Aelrindel thought. Don’t go there.
A sneaky water snake slithered between her naked legs in response and her toes sunk in the mud when she tensed up. The serpent hissed, small eyes gleaming in the two moons light, shining over the serene expanse of the lake and moved away out of respect. It left a line carved on the soft muddy ground, ever coiling. Aelrindel sighed, eyes closed and allowed her mind to wander aimlessly for a second time, her body relaxed and drying up slowly under the caress of the soft desert breeze.
The same memory surfacing again.
A rarity, when so many recollections were present to choose from.
The pool of memories endless.
> A melodic lullaby started amidst the ancient eldertrees. The Garden creatures enlivening it. Branches rustling, seeds crunching, water trickling and birds chirping. The notes carrying a cherubic voice, high and harmonious. No words, only feelings. Love and joy. Surprise and sweet delight. Long fingers playing with her hair. Soft skin touching her forehead, eyes a bright purple with lines of silver smiling.
>
> “That’s me tiny sweet love,” her sister sang to her, beautiful voice turning into a whisper.
>
> “I shall borrow one of your smiles mini Rin, take it with me. What do you think hmm? I shall bring it back when it’s over.”
>
> Ah, curse ye. Aelrindel thought a tremor running through her. You lied.
>
> Show me something else.
>
> The Goddess obliged her.
>
>
>
> The golden Wyvern returned from the far west, scales glowing and turning into a bright mirror shining its light over the large shadow. A young Aelrindel gasped and ducked behind a table scared. She felt unsafe and lonely.
>
> Angry.
>
> Scared.
>
> Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
>
>
>
> Time moved forward again, old scenes ever changing, as if someone was shuffling through them, looking for the correct one. The sorceress gasped and tried to snap out of the dangerous dream, but the Goddess kept her trapped there.
>
> The procession approached coming from Elas Bridge.
>
> Imperial Rangers and Priestesses. Everyone armed and serious.
>
> You don’t bring blades in Nesande’s Garden.
>
> “There you are”, Faelar said looming over her and picked her up easily. “Your mother wants to talk to you.”
>
> Her mother smelled of smoke and sea. Sweat and blood. Her arms blackened to the elbow and her face gaunt, even bony, as if she was sick. Aelrindel tried to find her sister amidst the gloomy faced crowd, but couldn’t see her, or many of her favorite priestesses. Edlenn grabbed her face with both hands and turned it so she could stare into her eyes.
>
> And stop looking for those missing.
>
> “Sweet child of mine, how I missed thee! Look at you all grown up. You get yourself ready now,” she told her planting a kiss on her forehead and Aelrindel started crying unwittingly.
>
> “We will travel to Elauthin,” Edlenn continued wiping the tears rolling down her cheeks. “Visit the new Queen.”
>
> “What happened to the old one?”
>
> “She’s with the King and your sister,” Her mother had replied and she’d smiled happy.
>
>
>
> Looking back Aelrindel realized she was pretty stupid as a child.
She opened her eyes and stared at the silent trees of Queen’s Oasis. A dream about a Queen then? Aelrindel asked the Goddess, but she remained mysterious and distant.
Other than it’s fitting given the place. Why?
Not getting an answer she hissed in frustration and stood up. She worked her hands on the cooling skin to clear the soaked leaves away, then reached for a moist towel to rub off the muddy impressions left as well. A frog croaked, plump round thing painted a bright orange and green. He’d a head out of the water and stared at her stupidly.
“What?” Aelrindel snapped, not in the mood for its idiotic questions and heard another branch snapping nearer. She narrowed her eyes and stooped to get her discarded robes, still hang from a low branch next to the lake’s small shore. “Faelar?” She asked and a figure unfurled behind an old palm tree. He was sitting down and stood up in reality. He looked like a human but he wasn’t. Tall and lanky, ever rising and impossibly thin, though wiry. Skin a rusty copper under tattered, dirty grey robes, full of old stains and some newer ones.
The narrow face under the big hood, sporting large meaty lips on an elongated mouth and a forked tongue wetting them. The teeth underneath small and pointy alike a shark’s. This Aken, Aelrindel remembered. She hadn’t seen it in ages and they had only met once, after her mother had been murdered brutally.
Ah, curse ye, she told the Goddess. I fucking hate you.
“Hmm,” Zargatoh O’ Galith slurred, words coming out strangled and twisted. “You’ve matured surprisingly well child.”
Aelrindel stepped back and brought her robes in front of her.
“I told your goons to leave me alone,” She hissed, half-scared half-disgusted. There was something wrong with being so near him and she remembered attributing it to fear back then. Aelrindel now realized it wasn’t that. The towering Aken felt wrong, it’s essence abnormal and cracked, as if sawn together pieces of many souls. A foul perversity, not belonging to the Realm of the living.
“Suharto and Grogoceq are zealous,” Zargatoh told her stooping to pass under a low branch and stopping a couple of meters from her. “I’ve given instructions to leave you be.”
“What do you want?”
“What’s best for you,” his smile was as unconvincing as his words. “We were very fond of your mother.”
“Leave her out of it,” Aelrindel hissed, feeling silly holding her robes in front of her chest like that.
So she dropped them, to better use her hands instead.
Fuck it.
Zargatoh narrowed his dark-gold eyes, but said nothing.
“What are you doing on Eplas?” Aelrindel asked and crossed her arms under her breasts with a sigh. It was a weird conversation anyway. “Other than spying on me that is.”
“There’s a Wyvern in Wetull,” Zargatoh muttered. Every word in Common painful for him. “It came as a surprise.”
“Not my doing,” She said. “It came as a surprise to me as well. Why do you care hmm?”
“I don’t, but you should.”
“Right. Why?”
“How soon before it learns what you did?” Zargatoh asked, clicking his forked tongue. He’d scars running down his long fingers and up his arms. The skin painted white there per their custom not able to cover them.
“It won’t,” Aelrindel replied. “Nobody knows and I doubt the Wyvern will care about me. They are egotistical creatures and self-serving. It will do its thing, unless someone stops it.”
“Meaningless words,” Zargatoh said. “You’ve lived with the humans for too long child.”
“Some of us like living things. I ain’t your child you ancient pile of rot!”
Zargatoh clicked his tongue and stared at her for a long moment.
“Do you know why your mother wanted the war to end?” He asked her changing the subject.
“She tried to stop the rogue Wyvern,” Aelrindel said treading carefully. She didn’t like where this was going. “The bigger threat.”
“Ah, yes it was,” Zargatoh agreed and he stared at her nipples for a long disturbing moment as if he was trying to memorize them. Given his proficiency in molding flesh, the stare and its implications became even more disturbing. Aelrindel raised her arms to hide her breasts from him, gaining nothing really as the Aken Elder lowered his eyes to her loins shamelessly.
What the actual fuck?
She opened her mouth to admonish him, but Zargatoh continued from where he’d paused earlier disregarding her wrath. “She worn herself out,” The Aken said and Aelrindel stood back, feeling her heart thunder in her chest.
She remembered her dream and shuddered.
Don’t go there.
“Too much magic, too soon,” Zargatoh marched on not caring for her reaction. “Collapsed, but Gimoss saw her going down.”
“That’s enough,” Aelrindel hissed angry. “Stop talking.”
“Picked her up he did hehe,” The Aken continued with a big nasty smile. “Cracked her spine, all them bones crunching, I can still remember it. Her flesh spilled out of her torn skin whilst she screamed for mercy.”
“You sick fuck!”
“Could have killed her outright, but he didn’t. Left her there to die slowly and kept your mother busy, while your sister breathed her last crying and fouling herself. It was very ugly and extremely arousing.”
He’s provoking you. That’s his plan.
Don’t give in.
Aelrindel stooped and grabbed her muddy robes. Threw them on shaking, trying not to start screaming.
“The Wyvern is dead Aken,” she finally said.
“That Wyvern is,” Zargatoh agreed and clicked his tongue seeing her forming the fire circle with her fingers. She’d done it on instinct. Aelrindel wanted to hear him scream when his flesh melted away from his bones. “Don’t be a fool,” The Aken cautioned her.
“How many in the trees? In Raoz?” Aelrindel asked. “How many of you left? Mother said he watched you die seven times.”
“Ah, you remember,” He smiled at that. “Many. The pain cleanses the soul.”
“You’ve no soul and you’re lying. How about we put it to the test?”
Zargatoh licked his lips that forked tongue dancing. “She put her in a shallow grave, your mother did,” He said after a contemplating moment.
“Fuck you,” She gasped and reached for that snake with a thread. She felt its life draining and a spark of flame formed in the dome her fingers had created.
Make it round, she sang.
Make it grow.
“Easy to find it was,” The Aken Elder continued interrupting her. “All them bones amidst the debris. I picked them one by one. Small bones, broken and leaking marrow. Cleaned the flesh, washed the rot away.”
What?
Aelrindel stood back shocked, the spark dying.
“I can bring her back,” Zargatoh offered and relished in a perverse delight seeing her shaking uncontrollably. “Built anew yes. I’ve kept her image and her bones.”
No.
“You’re lying. I don’t want to hear it!” Aelrindel hissed grinding her teeth. “There is no coming back.”
“What if you are wrong?” Zargatoh asked.
Rin, the little girl whispered.
Naah! She screamed inside.
All lies!
“I’ve seen your soulless constructs Aken. Nothing you make is real,” she replied breathlessly, her heart hurting and ears ringing.
She wanted to cry and vomit at the same time.
“Yet you’ve talked with them, taken their advice aplenty,” Zargatoh countered with a leer. “All of you high and mighty fools, have them at the near. You fuck and love them equally. Spill your secrets and listen to their words.”
Aelrindel clenched her jaw and glared at him. “Leave now. Never come back,” She warned the still leering Aken. “Go back to your stupid schemes. Take the dead with you!”
“Our schemes are endless. Millennia in the making. Our patience is immeasurable, for we do not fear loss. You’ll come to me begging. You’ll let me rip your soul out and fuck it,” Zargatoh replied austerely. “Eventually all do. Your mother did to avenge her daughter. You did, to avenge your mother. Kings and Queens all come groveling. All will bow afore the Painted God.”
The spark came back again. It went from a small flame into a sphere of raging fire in an instant and swallowed him whole.
----------------------------------------
----------------------------------------
“Aelrindel?” Lithoniela asked her near dawn. The ground still smoking, a large portion of the Queen’s Oasis lake eastern bank blackened and free of trees. The firestorm had raged for hours and was visible from the distant Sadofort and the Prince’s warcamp. She’d stayed near the lake staring at its still waters in silence for the whole night. The fire had burned in a semi-circle away from her. “We need to leave, there are soldiers approaching. Are you alright?”
The Princess was worried she’d blown their cover. The crazy witch had finally lost it.
“I’m fine. Don’t worry about Nout.”
“If they see us, how are we going to explain it?”
“You are a Princess of Wetull,” Aelrindel told her. “You shouldn’t have to explain yourself to Horselords.”
“Something happened,” Lithoniela said perceptively. “Something terrible.”
“Aye,” Aelrindel agreed and wiped her eyes. “Something terrible.”
“Can we fix it?” Lithoniela asked. “You have a plan right?”
Ah, I wish I knew how and plans never turn the way I want them to.
Not even close.
“We are way past that Princess,” she told her sadly. Lithoniela touched her arm softly to comfort her. It brought more tears to her eyes.
“We can help those left behind,” She told her and despite having her mother’s voice, Lithoniela didn’t sound like her. Baltoris was ruthless. “Start anew and save our people.”
“Not everyone is worth saving,” Aelrindel whispered.
“We won’t be the judge of that.”
“What about those that are gone?”
Lithoniela paused and looked to the sunrise. “I was alone and now I’m not. Each part of our people I find is filling up the void, making me whole again,” She sighed a little embarrassed. “I shall treasure those lost and try to live through those that survived. Perhaps it’s not much of a plan, but Faelar talked of that too for long and he knows better. He’s of the First Era.”
Eh.
“Fuck Faelar,” Aelrindel told her, snapping out of her reverie. “But the rest of it is a good plan Princess, much better that whatever I’ve ever thought of. For the most part.”
Lithoniela glanced her way. “You don’t think we’ll be able to pull it off without a fight?”
Aelrindel stared at the pile of smoking burned flesh that had been Zargatoh. “Oh, there will be a fight alright, much as I fear it,” she muttered thoughtfully. “I just wish there’s something of us left behind, after all is said and done.”
Much as wishes go in this Realm and all others, the Sorceress had hers fulfilled…
For the most part.
----------------------------------------
----------------------------------------
END
OF
~ACT III~
The Wings of Fate
Part I
----------------------------------------
----------------------------------------