As the sun set and night claimed the kingdom of necromancers, Coquelicot stared at the castle’s silhouette and nervously moved her arms around while waiting for any news from her scouts; mainly from Periwinkle, whom she had commanded to stay out of her view while still reporting on what is happening with Anastacia. Upon hearing about Anastacia’s fight with the gigantic undead creature, she had waited for Amaranth to release her control over it and sent out few of her disciples to dismantle the skeleton to avoid having to possibly deal with it if Anastacia was to fail her mission.
“She’s heading to the roof, finally… Are you sure about this? Anastacia is strong, I mean she even beat that huge thing out there, but Amaranth has her entire pack of dragons and wyverns above the castle. It’d take her two seconds to kill Anastacia.” Periwinkle worried and fumbled with the ring he had been given earlier in his pocket while keeping an eye on the necromancers inside the castle.
Coquelicot threw a candy pouch she had just emptied at her newest inquisitor. “I don’t remember asking your opinion. Besides, Amaranth doesn’t want to kill Anastacia and won’t, unless she absolutely has to. So it’s not like she’ll just crush her immediately, most likely that old hag will try to push Anastacia into joining her, and if there’s something I’ve learned about that girl is that you absolutely should not try to push her. Last time I tried that, Alice got killed and it could have gotten way worse.” She explained gruffly. “I wouldn’t be surprised if she flipped a coin to decide whether she’d kill us too before coming here. But if this goes like I think it will, we just have to stay on her good side for a while.”
Periwinkle winced. “I know all too well what you mean, I was lucky enough to only have to deal with the simulacrum.” He had gotten properly patched up after arriving, but the injuries King had caused still ached even after downing a considerable amount of painkillers. “But if you say Anastacia can pull it off, I have no choice but to believe you.”
“You weren’t there when the whole bracelet incident happened, but you’ve probably noticed that the only thing holding her back is her willingness to use her powers. To her, necromancy might as well be synonymous with evil, so whether it’s consciously or unconsciously, she’s limiting herself to whatever she deems to be the absolute bare minimum. Frustrated by her lackluster attempts to train, I used an enchanted bracelet to remove those limitations and well… It took me, a god and alcohol to stop what was created there. It made me understand that she needs to be like this.” Coquelicot continued explaining before she caught herself prattling on and fell quiet again. She had insisted that Periwinkle was not supposed to converse with her beyond reporting the situation in the castle.
The rest of the army had been told to prepare themselves for combat and spread out to catch any would-be escapees. The actual force that would enter the castle would be relatively small, as they weren’t expecting much of a resistance inside as long as Amaranth was defeated. The remaining royals were to be dragged outside for their executions and the other inhabitants of the castle were to be killed on sight. Every nook and cranny would have to be turned upside down to make sure no one was left alive, so everyone who was tasked with that, knew exactly which rooms they were supposed to cover. Barely able to contain their excitement over the revolution finally taking its final steps, the necromancers constantly bothered the scouts that were able to feel what was going on inside, eagerly hoping to finally get the command to approach.
“Have you thought about establishing a buddy system for clearing the castle?” Periwinkle suddenly asked.
Coquelicot briefly stopped moving her arms and turned to face the masked inquisitor. “Excuse me?” She asked in a tone that somehow combined both annoyance and genuine confusion.
“I was just thinking that it’d be pretty easy for someone to take out one of our guys and disguise themselves as one of us. So if everyone has a buddy watching over them, that can’t happen so easily. If we just pair them up based on the areas they’ve been told to clear, the whole process will take slightly longer but at least we could be sure.” He pointed out.
Coquelicot rubbed her brow and sighed. “I have an army consisting of every capable necromancer under the sun, and you think we need a buddy system? No one there can challenge any of us, so why would we bother with that?”
“Arrogance is the enemy of success. Besides, Anastacia might find it in herself to pity some of the unfortunate souls trapped in there, despite your warning. So far there has only been a single death, so it’s not entirely outlandish to think she might have even helped some of them in some way to give them a chance to escape. What I’m saying is why take the risk when we’ve already basically won?” Periwinkle proudly defended his idea.
It took every bit of Coquelicot’s self-discipline to swallow her pride and accept that there was some sense in her disciple’s suggestion. She ordered the lower ranking commanders of her army to introduce the concept to the troops and arrange the pairs among the ranks. The chain of command was well established in her army, so making last minute changes to a plan wasn’t that much of a problem and didn’t require much from Coquelicot herself, so she was free to return to her tent to rest. Though the main reason for her fatigue followed her there in case he needed to report something happening inside the royal castle.
“Could you close the door, we need some privacy.” She asked and sat down to adjust the cover on the crystal lantern on her table.
Periwinkle did as he was asked and could almost feel his superior’s intense stare drill holes into the back of his mask as he awkwardly tried to avoid making eye contact with her. Worried for his life, he didn’t open his mouth and had to bite on his tongue to make sure he didn’t make an unwanted comment about the situation.
“Every day I’ve had to deal with you, I’ve wanted to tear you apart because your presence causes me nothing but pain. Yet, I know that you are loyal beyond questioning; to me, to Anastacia to a degree too but above all else, your brother…” Coquelicot said and took a deep breath to calm herself and continued. “Because of that, you’re the only one I can truly trust with this. You’re probably aware that your peers have a bit of a grudge against Anastacia over your predecessor’s death and might well be plotting something for tonight. Assuming she’s able to deal with Amaranth, your mission is to make sure nothing happens to her afterwards. It was never a part of your brother’s plans for Anastacia to get hurt, but now that Alizarin is dead I have to handle the entire thing – and I will not disappoint him.”
Alizarin and his little brother hadn’t always been on the best of terms with each other, on the account of the older brother abandoning their faith and more recently more or less imprisoning the younger one during the rebellion, but Periwinkle still respected his brother and would have never done anything to ruin his plans. If anything, he was glad to be part of them, even if it was because Coquelicot didn’t have any other options. He nodded and finally faced his late brother’s wife directly.
“I have to stay in the lower floors and oversee the situation with the royals, so it’ll be entirely up to you to get to Anastacia first. Now, Duke and Cyan are unlikely to cause trouble, they were both close with Alice, but they also understand their position far better than the rest. I’ll have Maya, Cobalt, Iris and Celeste with me, so they won’t be able to do anything either.” Coquelicot listed her disciples and counted them with her fingers. “That leaves us with Teal, Sapphire and Phthalo. They’re needed outside the castle to make sure there’s no blind spots, but will probably try something if they get the chance. Follow them and see what they’re up to.”
“And if they try something? Any of they can wipe the floor with me if they want to.” Periwinkle worried. He was by far the weakest of the ten and would stand absolutely no chance against the three if it came down to it.
Coquelicot stopped for a while to think. “Create a diversion and let Anastacia or the simulacrum kill them. Everyone needs to understand that once Amaranth is no longer a threat, loyalty becomes more important than raw strength. I have no need for out of control brutes when the entire Mournvalley is under my control.” She said and leaned back in her chair. “Now then, back to business. How far along is she?”
Periwinkle closed his eyes and concentrated for a few seconds. Having two incredibly strong necromancers like Anastacia and Amaranth made it hard to follow the situation accurately. It was like staring at the sun and trying to figure out which two spots were the brightest. “She’s almost at the roof, we should get ready since whatever happens, happens quickly.” He reported.
“Amaranth will probably try and chat for a bit, she’s a talkative old crone. Anastacia will probably try something stupid and get smacked around for a while before lashing out.” Coquelicot guessed.
And soon enough, Periwinkle felt the first dragon crash onto the roof and very nearly knock Anastacia out, only leaving a faint trace of her powers behind, just enough for the scouts to be able to tell she’s still alive. “How did you know? Why send her there if she’s just going to get beaten?” He asked and started to get a bit antsy about the entire plan.
Coquelicot let out a slight giggle. “You could send that girl to fetch water from a well and she’d somehow end up with a concussion.”
Periwinkle continued to nervously observe the situation as the second dragon descended on the roof. Anastacia still being alive was a good sign, since inquisitors don’t make their conflicts any longer than they need to be, there had to be a reason why Amaranth hadn’t just crushed her opponent yet, but that’s as far as the good news went. Yet suddenly Amaranth’s presence disappeared just as quickly as Anastacia’s had, some of her power lingered around for a few seconds but eventually it faded away, and the flying thralls that had been under Amaranth’s control dimmed and became nothing more than inert piles of bone in the wastes around the castle.
Even through the mask, Coquelicot could see his surprised expression. “She pulled it off, didn’t she?” The High Necromancer smiled. “I do believe you have an urgent mission to attend to. You’re excused.”
Periwinkle rushed out of the tent and started looking for the other inquisitors frantically. The other scouts had felt Amaranth’s demise just like he had, and the entire army had already been mobilized. Some of the teams had already started to spread out to surround the entire castle, while the group that was supposed to enter the castle waited for their mounts to arrive, because the resistance’s thralls had all been a safe distance away from Amaranth and it would take them some minutes to get to the camp. The sudden busyness of the camp didn’t do much to hinder Periwinkle’s search, since all he needed to do was close his eyes and the other inquisitors would be easy to locate, as they were noticeably stronger than the average necromancer.
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There was a group of four heading towards the tent that were no doubt the inquisitors Coquelicot was going to take with her, and the two that were leading the other necromancers along the planned route were more than likely Cyan and Duke. The remaining 3 were grouped together and were heading into the general direction of the castle on their own. Periwinkle bolted towards them as fast as the pain medicine allowed him to. On the way he stumbled a couple of times on some rocks he couldn’t see in the dark but pressed on regardless of the pain.
Finally, he could see the trio’s lantern in the distance and could hear them conversing, though that ended as soon as they noticed him. They were standing next to one of the dragon skeletons that had fallen from the sky and were putting some of the misplaced bones in order, presumably to make it functional once more.
“Hi guys! What are you doing all the way in here already?” Periwinkle asked and leaned on the skeleton to catch his breath.
“Who invited the gimp?!” The inquisitor named Phthalo asked and seemed furious. He had always been a bit of a hothead and no doubt the driving force behind the revenge plot. “I swear, if you ruin this for us, they will never find your corpse.” He threatened Periwinkle and tackled him against the dragon.
“Now I would never do something like that, who do you think caused my injuries? We have a common goal here.” The masked necromancer lied and was let loose.
The three rogue inquisitors were nothing to scoff at: Phthalo had a very dangerous tendency to use pieces of bone as traps by shattering them and killing everyone in the room with the fragments – and everyone in the nearby rooms as well if the walls weren’t made of solid stone; Teal was usually armed to the teeth with Alizarin’s latest weaponry and was somewhat unusual in that he was just as familiar with swords and spears as he was with necromancy, excelling in situations where it had failed or wasn’t an option; and Sapphire was quite possibly the single most powerful beastmaster in Mournvalley after Amaranth’s death, though unlike the previous head of the red inquisition, she didn’t need her thralls to be dead first.
So whether it was by getting riddled with bone fragments, stabbed or eaten by a scavenged dragon skeleton, Periwinkle knew that he was going to die as soon as the three realized he wasn’t there to help them. Anastacia was almost certainly down for the count and wouldn’t be able to help, but as long as her simulacrum was there, a diversion could give him the few seconds he needed to chop through the inquisitors.
“Alrighty, fellas, me thinks that the big girl here is ready for a flight.” Sapphire said and tied up her long black hair so that it wouldn’t get messy during the flight. She slapped the massive skeleton and it immediately nudged awake. “This gon be a bumpy one since we’re missing all kinds o’ important parts, so y’all just hang tight on the feetsies and we’ll probably make it there.” She instructed the other three and climbed on the dragon’s back.
Once all of them had gotten a firm grip from the dragon’s legs, it started to flap its vast wings that obviously provided no actual lift, yet somehow it shot up into the sky like it would have back when it was alive.
From above, Periwinkle could see their forces spreading all over the wastelands around the castle, the gigantic remains of The Mother that were still being chopped up into more manageable pieces and the dozens of flying undead creatures that had crashed down when Amaranth died. As someone who had never seen eye to eye with the old rulers of Mournvalley, he was quite happy about the outcome of the rebellion, even if it might end up costing his life in the process.
The dragon flew around the castle a couple of times while looking for a good direction to land from. They were well ahead of the rest of the army and didn’t need to worry much about being covert, the scouts would still feel them but knew well enough to not question the inquisitors, so that wasn’t anything to worry about either.
Finally, after a few minutes of extremely wobbly flying, they descended on the rooftop, though the last few meters were closer to a freefall and the skeleton immediately fell apart after landing. The whole experience was not something they wanted to repeat, and all four of them had to lean on something for a while afterwards.
Teal, who had held onto the same leg as Periwinkle, seemed to have had especially hard time and proceeded to throw up into a flower bench. “Have you ever thrown up inside that mask?” He asked from his fellow inquisitor.
Generally, Periwinkle hadn’t been terribly well received in the group, but Teal at least didn’t go out of his way to be mean, so the newest addition to the team considered him to be somewhat of a friend and would definitely be unhappy if he ended up dead because of this. “Not this one, the mouthpiece here is detachable for eating and all that, but the old one wasn’t. I can tell you that it goes straight up the mask and gathers into the goggles. It’s not great.” Periwinkle laughed.
One of the reasons Teal probably didn’t mind Periwinkle as much as the others was that both of them were somewhat unconventional and thus required specialized gear. Rest of the inquisitors rarely spoke about things like how to improve weapons and other equipment since they just used the standard robes and whatever material they found or brought with them. Teal actually had almost an entire set of plate armor, including a helmet and a set of weapons with and without bone parts in them. Though he only used that on missions where he was likely to see actual combat and was now just wearing his robes that only had metal shoulder and arm guards.
Sapphire was more used to flying than the other three, so she was quickly back on her feet and gazed at the ruined garden around them. “This a proper ol’ mess they’ve got goin’ here. If ya nerds get tired o’ throwin’ up, pick up some o’ them flowers so I can make a flower crown for Maya.” She mocked the others.
Being a few years older than the rest of the new inquisition, Sapphire had quickly taken over the spot as the group’s ‘big sister’ when Alice had died. She was somewhat tall for a woman and especially for a necromancer. Some years ago, she had been found from a farm by Coquelicot, and growing outside of the usual hierarchy of the necromancer cities, she was a tad uncouth but made up for it with her strengths as a necromancer. She clearly wasn’t particularly fond of Periwinkle, but that was more because she didn’t trust people who wouldn’t show their faces than anything else.
“Found the lass, she done gotten bonked on the noggin. Still breathin’ fine but think she broke her right flapper, it don’t bend like that normally. See?” She said and flopped Anastacia’s broken arm around.
Phthalo stumbled up and headed towards them. “Can you wake her up? She should feel what’s about to happen.” He mumbled angrily.
“Are ye sure about this? This don’t feel fair, she’s like ten or some shit.” Sapphire asked and held her lantern up to see Anastacia’s face better.
“Look, she burned Alice alive, it’s only fair that she gets at least some of that back.” Phthalo grunted and moved Amaranth’s body a bit further away.
Teal joined the conversation after he was sure he was done throwing up. “Yeah, I’m with Sapphire on this one. She just basically handed us the power over Mournvalley, maybe we could just kick her a bit and consider her debt paid?”
“What the fuck guys? If either of you got killed, I’d avenge you in a heartbeat and without a second thought, and I expect you to do the same for me!” Phthalo yelled, clearly upset by the hesitation. “The new guy knows what I mean, right?”
“What? Yeah, totally.” Periwinkle nodded without really listening. He was trying to find King, but the simulacrum didn’t seem to be there, which didn’t bode well for his plans. Immediately upon joining the group and glancing at the unconscious necromancer, he noticed the two rings on her fingers. They seemed awfully similar to the one Noir had given to him for some reason. “Two siblings, huh…” He quietly repeated the crow’s words.
“What were you going to do anyway?” Teal asked and drew one of his swords to poke Anastacia with.
Phthalo scratched his bald, tattooed head. “Maybe skin her? That’s pretty similar to burning.”
“She would make some mighty pretty book covers, if we skin her.” Sapphire unhelpfully pointed out and rubbed Anastacia’s cheeks.
While the other three debated what would be the right punishment for killing Alice, Periwinkle kneeled next to Anastacia and took a better look at the rings. They did seem to be a set and if they were enchanted, basically anything could happen if he put the third one on her finger. Nonetheless, it had to be done at the exact right moment and then maybe he could have something resembling a chance against the other three inquisitors.
“What I don’t get is why boss is so into her. Sure, she’s strong and all that, but there’s no way she’ll ever join us. So why not just kill her and be done with this stuff?” Phthalo wondered.
“The boss lady ain’t big on givin’ reasons. Doubtin’ her is one thing, but we’re straight up goin’ against her on this.” Sapphire said with a slightly hushed tone. “Folk end up in bits for less with her.”
“She has a point. There’s no way boss won’t find out about this and when she does, she’ll tear us in half.” Teal agreed. He had been scraping small stars on Anastacia’s thigh with the tip of his sword while thinking and proudly nudged Sapphire to show his work.
They argued for a while longer, with Phthalo not budging from his decision to kill Anastacia and the other two inquisitors slowly starting to regret coming there. Periwinkle just stayed silent and followed the situation, hoping that together with Teal and Sapphire, he could convince Phthalo to give up on the revenge.
Suddenly the bloodthirsty inquisitor snapped and yelled. “I’ll just fucking do it, damn it!” Phthalo grabbed Teal’s sword and swung it.
Just as he did that, Periwinkle panicked and slid the third ring on Anastacia’s finger. For a fraction of a second, he could feel his heart skip a beat as seemingly nothing happened, before the sword connected with Anastacia’s throat and plinked off like it had hit a rock.
Phthalo stared at the sword in confusion before connecting the dots between the sword bouncing off and Periwinkle holding Anastacia’s hand. “what the… YOU!” He screamed in blind anger as the whole area was suddenly engulfed in a cloud of white dust.
In the cover of his bone dust, periwinkle grabbed the violet cloth next to Anastacia and covered her face with it to avoid getting any dust in her lungs. The other three inquisitors were so preoccupied with the dust that they couldn’t do anything besides using necromancy to keep it from touching themselves, giving periwinkle the few seconds he needed to come up with a new plan.
The masked necromancer started dragging Anastacia towards the edge of the roof, but with his injuries, it was slow and difficult. When Phthalo started flailing in his general direction with the sword, he took a glancing blow on his shoulder but didn’t let it bother himself, as there were more important things to do before bleeding.
While they had been debating Anastacia’s death earlier, the first group of necromancers had almost arrived at the castle on their undead mounts, and with them was Coquelicot.
Periwinkle leaned over the parapet to look down: the drawbridge was directly under them, and on either side of it was the moat. They would probably hit the bottom pretty hard, as the fall was quite high, but that was certainly a better fate than staying on the roof with Phthalo. The necromancers at the bottom would no doubt see them and fish them out immediately too. Confident in his escape plan, Periwinkle pushed Anastacia’s limp body over the edge and rolled over it after her.
Coquelicot hopped off her horse by the drawbridge and prepared to enter the castle as soon as possible. On the outside she seemed as calm and collected as always, but in reality, she was extremely worried over what was happening on the roof. She could feel the inquisitors there but lacked the accuracy to tell them apart or even what was happening. She wouldn’t be able to forgive herself if Anastacia got killed, since it would mean she failed her late husband as well.
Just as she stepped on the drawbridge, Anastacia smashed right into it only a couple of meters in front of her, and a few seconds after it, Periwinkle dove into the moat next to her, screaming profanities as he fell.
“FU…” She yelped in a completely uncharacteristic manner and reflexively took a combat stance before fully comprehending what had happened. “I mean… Could someone get Periwinkle from the moat? He can’t swim.” She commanded the inquisitors accompanying her after an impressively quick recovery of her composure.
As two of the inquisitors jumped into the moat to help their teammate, the other two rushed to Anastacia and were astonished to find that she was completely fine, aside from a broken arm and a small headwound.
“Maya, Cobalt, lay them down and do what you can to patch them up. Iris, Celeste, we’ll continue according to the plan, drag the royals out here and we’ll get started.” She said with a hint of relief in her voice.