The market was empty. No people moved through it. No voices were heard. Each stall was abandoned, left to linger in the open air. An unguarded target for any thieves or beggars that happened to be lurking in the shadows. But there were none of those either. The fruit sat baking in the sun, slowly rotting away. The trinkets and toys sat idle on their benches. The pens and stocks hung open, all the animals long since escaped. Nothing moved, nothing breathed, nothing thought. But out of sight little things crawled.
The Oaken Court sat beneath their towering tree in the throne room. There were less of them now. Sireth, the head ranger of the Deepwood, Eyr Ragoth, Queen of Xith, and Vered the Tailor had all died in the battle for the castle. Others had left, returning to their homes to deal with the aftermath of the war. But there was a newcomer, a newcomer who made many of them extremely uncomfortable. The sorceress they called her, for none of them, including her, knew her name. It had been taken somehow, by the sword of the Inkdrop Queen, who as it turned out, also had no name.
Strange magics were about and the more mundane members of the court, the Royal Masters and such, were increasingly growing concerned. The Battle for Castle Elkring had been fought with vampires and potions and magical fire and swords made of ink and a sorceress. Not to mention the phoenix that had rampaged across the land melting an entire castle with an army inside it. And now, to make things worse, the sky had turned red and stars had shot across it to explode some place out to the west. The Royal Masters prayed that this was just some natural phenomenon, that all the magic was over, but they were not so lucky.
“So I have three of the most powerful witches in the world here and none of them can tell me what those falling stars were?” King Ramon Elkring spoke from his throne.
The three witches rankled at having their power compared to the feeble power of the other two but they couldn’t exactly disagree. They knew it wasn’t natural but that was as far as their knowledge stretched. Falling stars were never that bright, and they never landed in almost the exact same location every time. There was something going on but Magda was confident it wasn’t demons, and Nath was confident it wasn’t a phoenix. Gushkabel was confident of nothing but she wasn’t going to act like it.
“What about you? Sorceress.” Ramon turned to the sorceress and struggled to say her title without it sounding like an insult. As king he was within his rights to insult her but while most people would happily insult sorcerers when they weren’t around there was something wrong about insulting an ancient creature of power and magic to its face.
The sorceress shrugged. “No sorcerer could have done something like that.”
“You’re sure,” Gushkabel asked suspiciously. Time was she was the authority on what sorcerers could and couldn’t do. But having defeated two sorcerers with the help of an all powerful artifact wasn’t quite the same as actually being one. “Sorcerers can manipulate storms and the elements. Could it have been some extension of that?”
The sorceress shook her head, refusing to look at Gushkabel. “Those stars came from beyond the sky and a sorcerer’s powers reach no higher than the sky. Besides, why would a sorcerer need to do that? What could falling stars achieve that enough lightning bolts couldn’t?”
Gushkabel grumbled in agreement. Her gut told her that it wasn’t a sorcerer but she didn’t like agreeing with the sorceress if she could help it.
“Well if it wasn’t a sorcerer, and it wasn’t a demon, and it wasn’t a phoenix, what was it?” Deagon, Royal Master of Coin, asked.
“Unfortunately, there are still a lot of possibilities outside of those ones,” Nath said. “A monster of some kind, perhaps.”
“Regardless,” Ramon spoke. “Why would someone do that? There’s absolutely nothing out there, where the stars struck. Our maps show it as a completely barren wasteland.”
Gushkable nodded. “The Fisher Plain,” she said wisely, glad she could maintain some knowledge over the rest of them. They didn’t know it was called that.
“A strange place,” Magda spoke with her tiny voice. “Nothing lives there, nothing at all. No one can enter it and live.”
Gushkabel cursed to herself, she didn’t even know the most about that anymore. What was the world coming to?
“Sounds like a dangerous place to investigate,” Ramon said. “And we don’t exactly have the resources to spare sending an expedition right now.”
“I can go,” Nath said. Unlike the other witches she was young and having recovered from the sicknesses that had plagued her as a child she was fit as well. “I’ll find out what is happening.”
“I’ll go too,” Peppers, Queen of Fools, said happily, dangling from her chair. “It’ll be an adventure.”
Magda tried to pipe up to repeat what she’d said about no one entering the Fisher Plain and living but no one wanted to listen to her.
“As much as I’m glad to see Peppers go,’ Deagon said and paused as everyone looked at him. “To do something useful,” he added hastily. “Why are we investigating this at all? The Fisher Plain, as you called it, is out beyond Xith, beyond the Greenlands even. What does this have to do with us?”
“Hopefully nothing,” Gushkabel said. “Hopefully whatever is going on is irrelevant to us and we can continue to focus on rebuilding the city. But if it is important, like the phoenix, like Farro’s army. We had best get a handle on it now before it spirals out of control.”
Peppers laughed. “Yes, pieces of the sky are falling to earth. We better act before things get really out of control.”
Everyone glared at her but she just laughed some more.
“Nath and Peppers will go and investigate this,” the king said. “The rest of us will continue rebuilding Elkring and the Hallowed Realm. The court is dismissed.” He rose from his throne and left, the others mingling amongst themselves.
Gushkabel muttered to Magda quietly. “Why don’t we just send the sorceress, she could fly there and back in days, if not hours.”
Magda looked up at Gushkabel with her watery eyes. “She is more useful than any of us at stopping bandits and vagabonds. And if she leaves this castle is woefully undefended with all the losses we took.”
Gushkabel muttered to herself some more and glared at the sorceress who was walking away. It was true that without her they would be having a much harder time recovering from the war than they were. There were remnants of the armies left all across the land causing trouble and somehow the entire enemy army had disappeared. If it came back they’d need her.
The two witches left and Magda sighed as Gushkabel kept muttering. She was taking the loss of the Bones of Hahkenata hard now that there was not only a younger, more skilled witch around, but an unfathomably powerful sorceress too. Magda hoped she would be okay. She also hoped that Nath and Peppers would be okay going somewhere as dangerous as the Fisher Plain. But they were both powerful, in their own way, perhaps they’d be okay out there where no one else had been. Well, she thought to herself, almost no one else.
The Witch Queen Nath and the Queen of Fools left the next morning on the fastest horses they could find. They covered ground quickly, unafraid of the dangerous roads they were travelling on. Nath had potions and poisons far more dangerous than anything they were likely to meet and Peppers still had the String of Vethimeres, even though she no longer had Vered to help use it. So they galloped along, completely unconcerned about the bandits and vagabonds that now plagued these roads.
Nath had wanted to keep some of the vampires from Xith around but they had all gone home with what was left of their riders, and apparently no one else was allowed to ride them anyway. So they rode horses, which couldn’t fly, but could gallop faster for much longer than vampires.
They rode for days, passing through Xith and into the Greenlands, then heading north toward the Fisher Plain. Peppers joked and laughed and Nath put up with her insanity, as much as she would never say it she was glad to have someone else along. Especially as they rode closer and closer to that red red sky. The trails of the fallen stars were still there, white against the burning crimson. As they reached the edge of the Greenlands they looked out at the plain in the distance. Looking up into that unholy maw above the barren plain, still burning in some places, Nath was reminded of her research into demons. Didn’t their realms look like this?
“Very scary,” Peppers said wisely. “At least we have love and friendship though. I’m sure that will help.”
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Nath nodded idly. “I’m sure Peppers, I’m sure.”
They camped there for the night and the night grew cold. It was difficult to sleep as Nath kept finding herself uncomfortable and moving around, as though the ground itself was wriggling and writhing subtly beneath her. Then her bedroll was doing it, then her clothes.
She sat up in the night, cold sweat pouring from her skin, and threw up. She shivered and coughed and staggered out of her bedroll feeling unclean, clammy and sweaty, and coated in something, something she couldn’t see, could barely feel, something alive.
She threw up some more and Peppers tried to help her, she was shaking now and couldn’t think. Could only remember the horrible sicknesses that had plagued her as a child. What a time for them to return. Her joints grew weak and she could barely stand so she collapsed to the ground.
She didn’t remember much after that. Peppers tried to get her back into the disgusting bedroll, full of things that writhed. But she resisted and Peppers didn’t try very hard because she seemed weak as well. Nath wasn’t sure all the vomit was her own.
She remembered lying there in filth for what felt like hours, shivering in the cold night. Then she remembered a woman appearing, a woman who soothed their shivering with clean blankets and warmed them with some sort of broth. A broth that drove away the sickness, a broth that drove away the dread.
She remembered the woman talking as she lay in her fresh blankets, slowly feeling the clammy feeling drain away. She didn’t catch much of what was said, she was in no state to listen. Something about a mistake the woman had made, she said she had to fix something. But she heard the last part. Because the last part was something the woman said many many times to make sure they understood. They couldn’t go back. They could never go back. They were to stay away from Elkring no matter what they heard was going on there.
By the time they were recovered the next morning the woman was gone.
“What... what happened?” Nath asked, snuggled in her warm clean blankets.
“We were rescued by an angel,” Peppers replied, faining delirium. “The angel of clean blankets and safety.”
“We can’t go back to the city can we?” Nath asked, looking away from the wasteland and back the way they came.
“No, then the angel will get mad at us,” Peppers responded wisely. She grew less happy and more thoughtful. “At this rate the Oaken Court will soon just be the oak tree.”
Nath nodded, she didn’t particularly like the rest of the court, especially the other two witches. But she hoped it wouldn’t fall apart. What else was there holding the Hallowed Realm together?
“There is a sickness sweeping through the markets,” Gushkabel spoke far louder than was probably necessary. “People are falling ill in their hundreds and we don’t have anywhere near enough resources to deal with this right now!”
The Royal Masters were somewhat relieved. Plague and sickness were obviously horrible and would likely devastate the slowly reforming kingdom. But they weren’t magical, and non magical things they could deal with.
“I shall call in every doctor money can buy,” Deagon, the Master of Coin announced.
“I shall clear out the barracks and turn it into a field hospital,” spoke Bariel, Master of Arms. “There aren’t enough soldiers left to fill it anyway.”
“My ships are at our disposal if we need to quarantine people on them,” Gurren, Master of Ships offered.
“All noble offers but I doubt it will achieve anything,” Gushkabel replied. “For this plague is magical in nature!”
The Royal Masters struggled to keep from groaning, Gurren didn’t bother and groaned anyway. Not again.
Ramon’s eyes narrowed. “These are strange times Gushkabel but what makes you think this plague is magical in nature. Our people are cramped together and conditions are terrible after the war, a natural plague is almost expected in times like these.”
“I think it is magical because we have a sorceress amongst us! Sorcerers are known for causing terrible plagues and I hardly think it is a coincidence that-”
“Why?!” the sorceress demanded loudly, her golden eyes almost glowing with rage. “Why would I do that?! I saved this city, I saved these people! Why would I now want to kill them all?!”
“Because you are a sorceress, you have power over plagues. If you don’t want them all to die, end this plague now!”
“I can’t do that! I can create a plague but I can’t control one!”
“There are historical records of sorcerers controlling plagues.”
“Maybe with a great deal of practise. But strangely I’ve never found myself using plagues a lot!”
“Well maybe it’s time to start learning! The fact that you haven’t even tried is-”
“Enough!” Ramon shouted. “Gushkabel, this is ridiculous! The sorceress saved us, you included, from the Inkdrop Queen. I’ll admit I was just as wary as the rest of you at trusting such a person, but without her this kingdom would be in shambles and we’d all be dead. What we do know is that there is a plague ravaging the markets and until we know that it’s magical in origin we are going to treat it the way we’d treat any plague. Royal Masters, implement your plans. Sorceress, see if there’s any truth to this suggestion that you can control the plague. And witches,” Ramon glowered down at them. “You are supposed to be who people go to when they’re sick. I think it’s time you started acting like it!”
The meeting dispersed and Gushkabel muttered away to Magda. She still didn’t trust the sorceress, even after all that had happened, and when a plague showed up she could think of no other cause. She was ignoring all her considerable knowledge and wisdom to focus on her hatred of the sorceress. Magda sighed heavily as Gushkabel ranted on. What was she to do?
The sorceress walked through the market which was growing emptier by the day. More and more people grew sick and there were fewer and fewer to man the stalls, fewer and fewer to buy things. She’d originally loved coming to the markets after she’d saved the city. In all the chaos and hustle and bustle no one noticed her golden eyes and she could simply blend in. But now people saw her, and now people feared her. She knew they would, how could you not fear someone who could simply conjure up a thunderstorm and smite you with a bolt of lightning? No matter how many times she saved people, she would still be feared. Such was the life of a sorceress.
She approached one man who was shivering as he tried to lean confidently on his stall. He was pale and he looked up at her with eyes that seemed to be focusing on something else.
“Hello,” she said and he just looked at her. “You’re sick, you should get help.”
The man shook his head, terrified. “There’s no help to get Miss. It’s all used up by now.”
The sorceress nodded sadly. “Maybe I can help.”
If the man looked terrified before he looked even more terrified now. He didn’t even speak this time, just shook his head and tried to back away. He couldn’t though, he seemed to be holding onto his stall for dear life and so he didn’t move back far. The sorceress nodded sadly and moved on. She wasn’t going to force her help onto people who feared her so much, especially when she didn’t even know if she could help at all. She was trying to change those things about herself, she couldn’t simply make everyone do what she wanted, even if she thought she was helping them. That would make her as bad as all the other sorcerers.
She heard a scream and ran through the empty market. It didn’t take long to reach a stall with a woman huddled at the foot of it clutching something in her arms. The sorceress’s eyes went wide, was that a baby? Swollen and purple and rotting? She moved closer and saw that it wasn’t a baby, it was the woman’s arm. It had been wrapped in bandages but those had mostly fallen off as the arm had swelled. The sorceress knelt down beside the whimpering woman and her mind went blank as to how she could help. What was she supposed to do? She didn’t know anything about medicine, and as she’d told the Oaken Court, she’d never investigated the part of her powers related to plagues.
The woman barely seemed to notice a sorceress kneeling down beside her, she just kept whimpering. The sorceress ran her fingers over the infection, trying to feel something the way she felt the elements. She could feel nothing.
There was another scream and she spun around to see someone pointing at her with purple fingers. She looked around and found that there was more than one of them.
“What have you done to us?!” they shouted.
“Why couldn’t you just leave us alone?!”
They were crying now, crying and shouting and screaming. She ran away, she wasn’t going to be of any help to anyone today.
Magda rushed through the castle toward the Oaken Court. There were so many meetings these days it was difficult to keep them all straight. She’d gotten distracted treating the sick down at the barracks that had been turned into a hospital and it had taken her a long time to get here. She’d rather be back there now, much as she hated working on so many patients at a time she knew she’d do a lot more good there than she would in another meeting.
She could already hear Gushkabel’s shouts as she ran. “She goes to the market and it just gets worse! There’s another plague now! Starting right when she appears! How is that a coincidence?!”
There were some more voices she couldn’t hear and she fretted to herself. What if Gushkabel was right? What if the sorceress was secretly trying to kill them all? It didn’t make sense but then did anything sorcerers did make sense? Gushkabel would know more than her. No! That was how she’d always thought, always trusting others even when she knew more than them. She needed to stand up for her own beliefs. Gushkabel was wrong, and she would make sure no one got hurt from it.
“We can at least try locking her up and see if the plagues die down!” Gushkabel continued. “Who’s going to attack a plague ridden city anyway?”
Magda agreed that attacking a plague ridden city was a bad idea but she wasn’t sure an invading army would necessarily see it that way. She bustled through the corridors and then stumbled. She was walking much faster than was good for her old legs and crashed to the ground awkwardly. Muttering to herself she began to pick herself up and realised she was shaking. She was shaking, and cold, that wasn’t good.
The voices seemed to be agreeing with Gushkabel. No, they couldn’t do that! She had to stop them. She put her hand against the wall to steady herself and then stopped. She turned her huge watery eyes to the wall. Things were growing blurry, she was sick, she knew that very well. But she had spent years training herself to see things no one else could. She wasn’t going to let a little sickness impede her vision.
All across the wall things moved, tiny things, invisible things. Things so small there was no way you could ever see them, except that there were so so many. She threw up on the floor and her hand slipped from the wall. She was too sick, far too sick but she started to make the connections. It was obvious now, Gushkabel was wrong after all. It wasn’t sorcerers, it wasn’t demons, and it definitely wasn’t phoenixes this time. That left only one other possibility in this case. It was just that you didn’t usually think of this possibility, it wasn’t natural to think that big.
Magda faded away into unconsciousness and elsewhere the sorceress was marched humbly off to the cells.