Taranheim 181

I was terrified. I would not be of use in this fight, and I highly doubted Paul could fight all these moths, especially with a powerful mage moth among them. Terry was unconscious and floating in the air by the woman’s magic. He looked unharmed, thankfully, but I didn’t know if we could rescue him safely.

The green moth woman we had been chasing was an older moth. Her wrinkles told me she was at least fifty-years-old. She seemed to be the leader of these moths who had their bows trained on us, and she confidently faced us down.

“The boy is ours. I have heard of you, Mimi. I know you were captured for eight years and then forced to marry a human. I have nothing against you, you are nothing but a c-c-c-child in a bad situation. If you leave now, you will not be harmed.” The old woman stated plainly.

“What promises can you give us that you won’t harm her?” Paul answered for me.

I cleared my throat and spoke for myself, “wait! Why do you want Terry? Who are you?”

“Get out of here, girl, or I w-w-w-will harm you.” She stuttered with some kind of an unfamiliar moth accent. “Listen, I will tell my people to lower their weapons for just a few seconds, and if you back away, I will let you escape with your l-l-l-lives.”

Paul interrupted me as I was about to protest, “very well. Just control your people.”

I said loudly, “I won’t leave until you at least tell me who you are and why you are taking Terry!”

The green moth narrowed her oval eyes and sighed. “Do you promise you will leave after I tell you?”

“I do,” I didn’t know whether I would or not, but I had to tell her what she wanted to hear.

The old moth woman took a long moment before she shrugged and figured there was no harm in telling me.

“I shall tell you, little moth who behaves like a human. My name is Meridi, and I am an escaped moth s-s-s-slave who hailed from Gracet. In Gracet, our patron g-g-god, Hypthos, came to me in a dream last, made me his prophetess, and told me the goddess of fate had chosen a Catalydd. He revealed to me in the dream exactly when and where the Catalydd would be today, and I made sure to capture him. We are taking this boy with us so the moths who are f-f-f-favored by the sun god will end up winning the coming war. This boy has the power to grant us a victory, according to Hypthos.” Meridi answered as sincerely as she could muster.

“You know what you want to know,” Paul said to me--not caring or comprehending anything of what Meridi had just said. “Let’s leave, My Queen.”

I was angry at these wretched moth gods. These creatures who had long ago convinced me I had a black soul and deserved to rot in a cage for eight years because I wasn’t passionate enough. Now Amser, the goddess of fate, was interfering in Terry’s life and making him into something without his consent.

“I thought moths were better than this. Terry has no special powers—he is not a ‘Catalydd’, he is a normal, human boy. Just let him go. You moths are despicable, hiding out here and only caring for yourselves when you should be helping to free other mo--!” Meridi commanded one of her men to loose an arrow and Paul acted quickly enough to shield me with his own body as he pushed me to the ground. I stared upwards and breathed heavily. My heart felt like it was pounding out of my chest.

“How dare you a-a-a-accuse me of not caring about our people.” The green moth said angrily. “You have no right to accuse me of not caring about our people when you live in a fine castle with fine clothes and jewelry while our own people serve you. The boy does have special power. I was shown them in a dream. I will show you them now! Kill them both!”

Paul stood up and hauled me to my feet while facing his back to the moths and tried to get me out of the dangerous situation unscathed.

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My mind was blank with fear—but I was worried that Paul would die protecting me. “Wait, wait! You can have me, just let Paul go!”

Just then, twelve arrows were fired and Paul was shot by all of them.

I sobbed in a panic and felt warm blood running down my back. Paul was quickly dying, and he was now leaning on me for support. Despite all that, he managed to draw his blade bravely and pushed me back toward the city.

He faced our attackers by himself and said to me, “it was an honor to serve you, My Queen.”

But I ignored him. I had brought a pouch with me that contained salves for wounds that the physician had taught me how to make. I stepped in front of Paul and, with trembling hands, took out an ointment, and, just as I tried to apply it, pain unexpectedly shot through my shoulder.

An arrow had pierced it and I fell forward. Paul caught me, and in that moment, he truly did remind me of Daddy. Daddy had strong arms; the real Daddy--the one without a bird in his head--would have taken a dozen arrows for me, too. It wouldn’t be so bad to die in his arms.

I turned to Meridi as my mind began to feel hazy and told her, “I was working hard to free the moth slaves while simultaneously trying to make humans see us as more than beasts. You’re proving their point by… By killing one of your own.”

Meridi looked surprised for a moment—like I had gotten through to her—and she snapped her fingers--letting Terry free from the magic she had been encasing him with.

He awoke when he hit the ground and Meridi said to him, “heal them.”

Terry scratched his head. I was fading fast, but I saw his look of utter confusion plainly. When he saw me and Paul dying, he gasped in horror. “I can’t heal them! I have no magic!”

“You have a fate, boy. You are the most powerful creature on this earth right now. Go heal them, or they will die.” The woman demanded as I tried to rub ointment on one of Paul’s wounds. “The man will die first. You better go to him first.”

Terry was panicked and had no choice but to try. He ran to Paul first, and, with trembling hands and worried tears in his blue eyes, pressed his palms to one of Paul’s many arrow wounds. Nothing happened. Terry cursed, “you monster! My friends are dying! I am not a moth; I have no magic!”

“Amser has triggered your potential. You have the p-p-p-power to save them.” Meridi insisted. “They will die if you don’t accept the fact that you are the Catalydd, blessed with power from the moth gods.”

Terry growled with angry tears.

I touched his shoulder with bleary eyes. “Your power doesn’t come from moth gods, it comes from the undying passion buried in your soul… The moth gods could never have that kind of power or passion. They can only trigger it.”

Terry sobbed in a panic--but listening to my words seemed to calm him. He sniffled and wiped his tears away with the back of his hand. He took a deep breath and placed his hands on Paul’s wounds again.

Miraculously, golden magic seeped out of his fingers and enclosed Paul’s body in golden magic just as the kind old man seemed to be losing consciousness for the final time. Terry laughed with relief as Paul’s wounds closed up and the arrows were pushed out of his skin. Light came back to the old soldier’s brown eyes which had previously been quickly fading.

Terry wiped his own eyes and then turned to me and healed my shoulder. I looked at my friend with pride and admiration. “How special you are, Terry! And you thought your aggressiveness and passion was a monstrous thing! There was an angel buried inside you all this time, not a monster!”

Terry laughed a little again in response and nodded.

Once Terry had healed me, I turned to Meridi and stepped toward her fearlessly. The silken moth was grinning happily. She explained, “the boy can heal any wound. Whoever gets him gets the world.”

I replied, “why can’t we join forces? You could be a great help to me.”

“My Lady…?” Paul said in surprise, thinking I was a traitor.

“I… I’m sorry Paul. You have to understand that I can’t stand to see my people enslaved. I wish to free them without hurting humans. Surely if you could put yourself in my shoes… If you could imagine being enslaved by moths, you would understand.”

Paul's mouth moved, but no words came out. He was stunned at the idea that I might be a traitor.

To Meridi, I asked, “don’t you wish to help me free our people, Meridi? I have a plan to free them in Nui with no casualties. Perhaps if we free them there, the rest of the world will follow!” I told her honestly.

Meridi gazed upon me thoughtfully. “They clipped my wings and you expect me to think that they can change? Of course I would l-l-l-like… I would like peace in the world, but there never will be because moths and humans are just too different. This is why we must ensure the victory of moths over humans.”

The old moth woman took a deep breath before saying.

“Come now, little queen. You can come with us rather than being the slave to a human man. The sun god is on our side and is ready to engage against the other gods in on our behalf. The lustful god has already picked the human side, and the other gods are still deciding, we should strike against the humans now before more gods pick sides. You are welcome among us—the free moth people--little queen. I know this situation was not of your choosing. We can wrest Nui from the humans’ grasp and you can see it restored. You can keep your human husband if it pleases you, but you would ultimately rule. It’d be nice to have a woman in charge for a change.”