In the halls of the lodge, Vilsin calmly strolled from stone corridor to corridor, evading Cherry as she hurtled after him. Occasionally, he would wait for her to pull her pistol up and take a shot. He would change position as she fired, and only his deep green cloak would remain in her sight. After using up all of her shots, she had resorted to rushing him down with no success. She was able to observe him less and less with each pursuit. It was then that she discovered his cloak and vestments lying on the floor.

Cherry nudged them with her sword. When she turned it over, all that remained of Vilsin was an empty chest cavity. A vile smell was filling the hallway, and it wasn’t long after she noticed the thin veins crawling around her. She whirled and tried to disentangle herself. Vilsin’s head was hanging from the ceiling and entwined around the chrism lit sconces with hair like tendrils. His eyes rolled completely back and were a putrid yellow with black blood vessels.

A gasp of dread escaped her mouth as she retreated down the hallway. The wooden doors shattered into splinters on both sides of her as Vilsin’s arms and legs were like pythons striking out at her. She tried to escape, but they lunged at her with bone tips gouging her across the arm. The veins were coming for her from all directions and grasping for her arm. She slashed at them with futility. They seized the leather band holding her syringe and flung it away from her. Cherry ran as fast as possible to a chamber, slamming the door shut and flipping over a wardrobe dresser in front of it.

She took out her cigarettes and shuffled them around before selecting one, bringing it to her lips, and lighting it. Exhaling, she muttered to herself, “Fuck me. I don’t want to die here. This web thing has to have some sort of unnatural bond and learning trick with these things. They knew the syringe was precarious. Questions for later, I guess. It is their mistake in thinking I’m limited in the ways I can awaken. The processed chrism just has to enter my body. I’ll teach them something new.” She took another long drag from her cigarette. Her eyes formed a hazy violet glow.

Cherry was aware of the darkness of the abomination surrounding her at that moment. Her sword poised, she fixed her gaze on the door as it was being forced open. As soon as Vilsin’s arm broke through, she lunged her sword at it to impale it to the wall. She leaped over the dresser and into the corridor. She spotted the syringe and, using her awakened reflexes, she rolled and evaded Vilsin, snatching it and driving it into her wrist. The world around her became a framework of blue chrism, gray inanimate objects, and white outlining the darkness that was now Vilsin. She recognized their connection through hairlike veins, all originating from an inconspicuous spot on the wall.

The feeling of floating alongside the flow of chrism overtook her mind. The veins from Vilsin’s head and extremities wrapped around her body and turned her upside down. His detached arms and legs coiled like springs prepared to deal a fatal strike. She seized a handful of the tendrils. Cherry’s gloves charred and evaporated into the air as they scintillated in blue chrism. The veins burned away, and she slumped to the floor on her knees. The limbs soared through the air, missing her. She grabbed two of them midair and they melted away to nothingness.

Vilsin’s head groaned. Cherry declared, “I see your heart.” In a flash of lightning, Cherry bolted down the hallway at a lump of flesh blending in with the darkened stone wall. Tendrils not visible to the naked eye connected to the rest of his body. She burned away the outer layer with a wave of her palm. At the center was his heart, now covered in black fluid. A burst came from her palm, leaving a black stain against the wall except for where his heart was. The rest of Vilsin fell down to the ground in a mess of sludge.

Cherry surveyed her surroundings while coming down from awakening. The courtyard with Demalyn was a vortex of storming darkness. Toward the forest, most of the black clouds had dissipated, except for a larger one where one red lifeline was within proximity. As she began turning to the west, her eyes widened. Two red outlines with blue chrism centers were out there. One was closing in on the lodge and the other was going towards the observatory. “This is worse. Fucking descendants.”

She was now sweating profusely as the blue mist was evaporating around her. Her legs were weak, but she didn’t feel as sick as the other day when she first awakened. She walked holding her shaking arms together back towards the courtyard, propping herself up on the wall. She slid down, thinking to herself that she would just rest for a moment. That was before she sensed the entire lodge quaking, threatening to collapse.

Demalyn had been eliminating creatures with ease. It was impossible for any of them to get to the sand without the tempest consuming them. Her vines were more like trees now encircling her. They expanded into the sky of the courtyard and took firm root in the ring. Tukrit and the matured offspring of the Spider all held at a safe distance observing.

She taunted them, “If you don’t come to me, children, this one will come over there without moving from this spot. We are starting to remember a thing or two. A god once told us we had broken her heart. That she would punish us until her heart achieved balance. We are no god. And this quarter of us does not have a heart to break. This one has blood lust. And this one will satiate it, children.”

The trees shook and formed massive arms that tore open the roof of the lodge. A giant staff formed, and the orb took its place at the front of it. When she planted the base of the staff into the earth, everything rattled and unleashed a dark, pulsing wave of air. All the Fallen braced themselves. The top of the tree formed a terrifying visage. A deep purple aura took the shape of a crown above it.

Tukrit, standing in awe, whispered to himself, “My queen.” He then saw a fragile Cherry endeavoring to make it to the courtyard. He ran over to her and held her up. Cherry looked up in desperate apprehension.

Cherry was leaning on Tukrit. “I need to figure out a way to snap her out of this. I saw her knock Ouren on his ass back at the prison, but this is something beyond what I imagined she was capable of.”

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

Tukrit asked, “Tell me please of her behavior upon escaping Ouren’s? Does she know who she is?”

“Yes, and no. Desdin saved her from Ouren, and he let us take her. Her memories are fragments between her and what we refer to as ‘it’,” Cherry explained.

Tukrit explained, “She is a fairy tale, a myth. The power she wields belonged to the Queen of our people before we were Fallen. When hunting the feral ones, I came across texts describing her feats. Sketches etched in timeless tomes depicting scenes such as this. When your friend began to lose control, I perceived the stories coming to life. My father was a shaman for the Fallen. I grew up with these stories. And when I became an elite tracker, I still carried the hope for my people and took each lead seriously.”

“Ugh. Her bloodwork was stable, but I thought she might have some relation to the Fallen. A sort of missing link to a common ancestor. I wasn’t sure if she was an experiment from the descendants or the Oldest or something else altogether. She never seemed concerned about it anytime we tried to talk about it.” Cherry said as she watched Demalyn’s unfamiliar face and expression. She was uncharacteristically cold.

Tukrit went on with his explanation while observing the manifestation of Demalyn’s power. “She, along with our king, aligned with Dragsil when he was still one of the Oldest. Time has obscured the details, or perhaps they lie hidden in some ancient archive, but she suffered defeat in a great conflict over a millennium ago. However, the Oldest was unable to entirely eliminate her or the King’s power. I was never successful in finding the King’s whereabouts, but the first Fallen believed that her power was the first to be sealed away in Ouren’s prison.”

“I can’t stand talking about Dragsil or anything related to him. But I can’t seem to escape it. Do you have any clue how to bring our friend back so we can get the hell out of here? We have descendants in the area too, so this might get ugly,” Cherry said.

“Oh, right, those guys? Only one of them is trouble. The other might be reasonable. I’ll help you escape. I’m joining the two of you when this is over with,” Tukrit said without hesitation.

“Yea, well, pretend we don’t have a choice in it or whatever. There are three of us, by the way. Well, we are three if he survives the matriarch. We also have a former warden on our team that the Oldest can’t seem to get enough of. So your crazy shit will fit right in. So, about calming her down?” Cherry asked again.

“What does every queen desire? I’ll be back.” Tukrit walked out to the courtyard. There he curtsied before Demalyn, who stared at him while sitting on the trunk that had established from her power. Purple and black wisps now swirled near her. He kneeled before her. “How long has it been since someone acknowledged you, my queen?” Tukrit asked.

“This one knows not what you speak of. Although it has a nice ring to it. You show me respect for what I know not. But you helped her friend. What can your ‘queen’ do for you?” Demalyn asked.

“I wish to aid you, my queen. To help you find your heart that you said you no longer have. Your people have fallen and those of us that would revere you need for you to regain your knowledge. I will stay by your side, my queen, for the duration of this journey. These children are unfortunately beyond saving. Grant them your mercy and bring her back to her friends so that we may adventure ahead,” Tukrit said before standing and stepping over to Cherry.

The other Fallen in the room understand in their own way the gravity of the situation as Demalyn now stared out at them. All of them kneeled before her with their heads completely lowered. “This one can see. Mercy is what is best for these children. They understand their position, and a deep-seated urge for revenge on their behalf is stirring within me. Demalyn gathered all the wisps of flame and dark. Branches from the tree grew out and reached the offspring like hands. With a gentle touch, Demalyn tapped each offspring on their head, sending purple light through them, which caused them to fall lifeless to the ground.

As the tree retracted itself into vines that surrounded her, Demalyn looked over at Tukrit and Cherry. “She is worried about her other friend. This one fears he may be in over his head. Our body will be taxed for a short time following this, so we must all go together.” The darkness faded from Demalyn’s eyes and she fell back, sitting on the sand.

A voice called out to them from the entrance of the courtyard. “Well, this seems to have sorted itself out,” Kurei remarked as he walked into the light cascading down from the open roof. “To be honest, I wasn’t sure how I was going to kill or capture a giant tree. So I told all the Union men to stand back away from the building while I went to see what would happen if I punched it.”

Tukrit said to Kurei, “Hey, you wouldn’t mind letting us pass, would you? Nothing good could come from helping that guy, Arata.”

Kurei grinned. “Nah, that isn’t going to work for me. Also, don’t worry about saving your other friend. Arata is going to fetch him now. So, we are going to the center of Leoris and waiting there for the both of them. Once we are all together, we can have a friendly chat. I’ve already beaten you once, and the other two here look like they’ve seen better days. Besides, I’ll step in if Arata tries to pull anything. Esthea was pretty clear that if Arata and I caught you I was not to allow any harm to come to Desdin.”

Cherry stared at Kurei cautiously. “I think you are lying about the pleasant chat part. Even the Regnum Lux is afraid of Arata.”

“You are correct. If you are human or fallen, he should absolutely terrify you. But Esthea scares all descendants shitless. Disobeying her is akin to taking a piss on one of the Oldest,” Kurei said as he began walking outside, motioning for them to follow him.

Demalyn sighed before standing up. “Cherry remember before when I reassured you about not being trapped? I can’t do that this time. We’ll just have to hope that Desdin comes back to us in one piece. Or else.”

Kurei laughed. “No need to toss threats around. I’ve already sent a message to Arata notifying him that things here may become violent if he shows up with that guy dead. He only indicated that I disappointed him by not getting the data he wanted on Lux’s awakened experiment. But you don’t seem like you would be up for much of a fight there, princess.”

The group met back up with the Union troops and made their way to the middle of town. Many of the soldiers looked at the three curiously but held their position. Kurei appearing light in contrast to them jubilantly spoke up. “How has Desdin been these years? He trained me, you know? I was the ninth warden. Many of us weren’t born in the Farland. Including me. I was always jealous of Jonah’s good boy. He makes the most interesting friends no matter where he is. And has the worst possible luck. I want to punch him right in the face and hug him at the same time.”

This resonated with Cherry, who smiled faintly. “Yea, I get to feeling that way about him all the time. He seems to survive no matter what. I know I should worry about him right now, but I’m confident I will see him again soon.”

Kurei laughed again. “Right! I didn’t want this reunion at first, but now I can’t wait to see the bastard.”