Fire danced around her as Sterin knelt, clutching her brother’s body in her arms. There were no tears, as much as she wanted to cry. Her chin trembled, and body shook with confusion, rage, and sorrow. This made no sense, the Sylos relied upon pure numbers, recruiting from the infection. They used their bodies as weapons, where had that shot come from?
“Captain? We’re being overrun!” an officer called frantically.
Sterin nodded silently. She slowly stood up, gazing at her dead brother.
“Get him back on the transport. Everyone back to the ships,” she croaked.
“Understood!” the officer yelled.
Bullets snapped and cracked overhead, and more of her crew fell. Officers, medics, sergeants. Sterin realized whoever was shooting at them wasn’t mindless Sylos, but intelligent. Her men where wavering.
As her warriors dragged Aine’s body into the hulking transport, Sterin climbed up the side, to the very top of the armored transport. The sight that met her eyes would melt the bravery of any normal person. A million walking corpses where milling silently towards them. Most Sylos incursions took years to fully turn a population. This was no Sylos infestation, but an occupation. She had never seen these parasites in such droves before. Yes, they took over planets, but they never moved as one like this, they preferred wearing down the occupants over time. This was an army.
She turned to her men.
“Drag your comrades back to the ships. I will cover you. We will burn this forsaken station from orbit!” Sterin roared.
The Spree cheered as the humans picked up the crew served weapons. The berserkers where smashing incoming enemy, guarding the retreat. Sterin watched in horror as Igor went down, swarmed by two dozen bodies that tore away as his flesh. He died as he lived, full of rage, and with no fear.
War horns sounded, and the Black Fleet Warriors slowly began falling back. Scuttling caught her attention, and Sterin turned her head to see Chief Baba climbing up beside her.
“Get back to the boats, old man,” Sterin growled.
“I hold you when born, no leave, we fight,” Baba snapped angrily.
“That was this life, old friend. Off with you!” Sterin snapped.
Baba looked up at her, pinched his lips together like a toddler, and shook his head violently.
“I am ordering you to retreat,” Sterin snarled.
“Go fuck you self,” Baba shrugged.
“Have it your way, old fool,” Sterin sighed.
Sterin ignited her energy, revealing her true form. She looked back down to the Spree Chief.
“Make sure everyone gets on board,” she said.
“No leave till you on boat!”
“Baba!”
“Child!” Baba stomped.
“Fine! Do it!” Sterin shrieked.
Sterin erupted into the air, her true and highest form showing. Four wings with pure white feathers sprang from her body, one set from her shoulder blades, one from her lower back. Her feet had a smaller wing per foot, as her body was covered in a pure white Ashura. Her hair grew to twelve feet long, flapping in the wind from her energy. Her skin turned pure white as she propelled through the air. A chain of lightening in each hand as she smashed into the horde.
She was Steriness of the highest house Ezreharn, daughter of the priestess of priests that shepherded the Laydren Empire. She was Star listener, Light Bearer, Captain of explorers and warriors, defender of the weak, avenger of the fallen. Banished for upholding the honor of the ancestors from a decrepit, wretched, and corrupt bureaucracy. She would not go down without a fight.
She landed in the midst of the horde and let loose a wave of energy fifty feet high. Hundreds of bodies evaporated at once as she unleashed her full potential. She twirled the lightening about her, sending them forward and snapping them like bullwhips. Dozens more fell as her lightening connected. As she fought like a hurricane, her army retreated.
Sterin began giving ground, slowing bounding backward as her warriors ran back across the hard-earned ground. She sent forth bolts of energy, cracked the whips of lightening, then shouted. A shockwave of high intensity sound erupted from her mouth, cleaving the decaying flesh off numerous walking corpses as they crumbled.
Behind her, her Laydren counter parts also assumed their truest forms, supporting her with arcs of fire and lightening. The Laydren officers pounded the horde as they retreated. After a while, they came back to the barricade. Sterin held to the last as her crew milled through the open gate. Chief Baba was not far behind, ripping corpses apart with his cane and energy. As Sterin fought, she saw numerous energy lights on the roof tops of the apartment complexes. Oh, how she yearned to fly forward and kill them all. To work with the Sylos, was beyond degenerative.
“All clear!” Chief Baba called.
“Right!” Sterin nodded.
She turned her back, about to bound forward, she would dissipate her energy on the other side of the gate. She lifted her right foot, about to push off with her left, when a searing pain erupted in her chest. Sterin howled and looked down. A massive blood red lance tip was sticking out of her chest.
Captain Sterin’s energy evaporated as she crumpled to the ground. She huffed and sobbed as the pain wracked her mind. She lay on her side, clutching the spear tip as she reverted to human form. Blood. So much blood. Her vision was going in and out, blurring. Her hearing was going as well. It was so warm now.
Suddenly, more pain. She screamed as she was lifted off the ground. She looked up, to see Chief Baba’s scaly face next to her, huffing. He had wrapped her arm around his shoulder and was dragging her to the gate.
“Push child! Eb maga boo zah!” Baba panted.
Sterin sobbed and grunted, pushing desperately with her feet. Behind her, she heard the thunderous thumping of hundreds of pairs of feet silently sprinting towards them.
“ZE WAAAAAAAAAAAH!” Chief Baba roared.
As the chief shouted his people’s war cry, Sterin glanced upward. A sea of Spree, both from her ship and the rest where charging forward. Blood red fury in their eyes, their war trophies jangling about their necks, there had to be a thousand of the four-foot-tall warriors. The Spree enveloped them, frantically chattering and using their weapons.
Streaks of red began smashing into the Spree formation, and Sterin saw dozens of her warriors get ripped to shreds, as lances of blood red began pounding them.
“OOOOOOOOOOOOG BAH MOZEEB!” Chief Baba called.
“ZE WAH!” the Spree thundered.
They formed a circle of shields, the Spree Shamans’ energy deployed, a sphere of blood red fire enveloping the shiels as a protective layer.
“MEEG! MEEG! MEEG! ZURE ABA BOON ZORE!” Chief Baba roared.
Sterin desperately kicked with her feet, trying to walk as they dragged her to the gate. They pushed inside, and several Laydren sprang forward. They pulled her away and laid her down on a stretcher. The Laydren crew members then picked up the litter up, and sprinted forward, back through the survivor’s camp.
Sterin’s vision was going in and out as she watched the ceiling black out. She wanted to sleep; it was so warm. Soon, she thought she recognized the cargo bay of the Exelon as they pushed inside. There was shouting, and some kind of scuffle. Sterin turned her head, and saw Chang Mai, his purple light energy deployed.
“We need to vet who comes on board!” Chang shouted.
“Get her on the ship, now! We are leaving!” Miken shouted; his pure black energy deployed.
“Not until I find the Dark Axium among the refugees!” Mai pleaded.
“We need to go!” a Laydren officer called.
“Orders! Captain?” Baba asked firmly, holding her shoulder.
“Get us the fuck out of here,” Sterin gurgled.
“No!” Mai challenged.
In an instant, the crew had surrounded him, all pointing their weapons at him.
“Deal with bad guy late, we fly, now,” Baba crossed his arms angrily.
“You’re all going to regret this,” Chang Mai spat, as his energy disappeared.
“Go back to the command deck, and know your place human,” Miken spat.
Sterin’s vision blacked out as she fell into a deep sleep.
Sterin was walking along the silver fields, skirting the palace of the ancestors. Above her, Laydra’s bright golden star burned, showering the silver garden with warm light. Birds and insects chirped, as she walked along the path she had walked thousands of times as a child. She skirted the large field of magnificent flowers and trees, framed by mountains and a pure river so clean one could see their feet as they walked across.
Warmth and joy filled her, she hadn’t seen home in thousands of years, it was just as she remembered. She walked along the expertly groomed path and arrived at a pavilion by the perfect lake. Human slaves in golden Ashuri, the servant’s version of the Ashura, where playing instruments and serving food to Laydren guests in their pure and perfect forms. As Sterin walked forward, they didn’t mind her. It was almost as if they couldn’t see her, which she didn’t mind. Standing in the middle of the pavilion, was a grey skinned woman in a purple and gold Ashura.
Sterin cautiously walked up the steps and entered into the pure white and gold wooden pavilion, silent. She held her hands, studying the beauty that surrounded her.
“The barbarian stench you omit insults my garden,” the woman drawled, not looking behind her.
Sterin’s joy melted, she recognized that voice.
“Hello, mother,” Sterin grumbled.
The woman turned slowly and studied Sterin. Her perfect face was framed by purple eye liner, a silver and purple band that held back her pure golden hair, her grey skin glistening. Her purple eyes where molten pools of judgement, and Sterin nearly melted into the floor from her mother’s gaze. As Sterin stared at the floor, a Laydren in a purple robe walked through her, and whispered into her mother’s ear.
“Thank you, you may leave Arthemese,” the woman nodded.
The Laydren man in the purple robe glared at Sterin, then walked away, through her. Sterin realized that while this was her dream, this was nothing more than the equivalent of a phone call for her family.
“You bring shame to our house,” the woman grimaced.
“So, nothing new then,” Sterin rolled her eyes.
“Wounded, by a human. And I had such high hopes for you,” the woman sighed.
“You banished me! Wait…. have you been spying on me?!” Sterin snapped.
“Spying? Phuh. Such a strong word for merely observing the trail of burning places and human whores you lie with. I mean, really, lying with lesser beings, what would your father think?”
“My father, can go fuck himself!”
“Hold your tongue you insolent child!” the woman sneered. Her eyes widened, veins glowing as her Ashura sparked and began to gently flap in wind.
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
The human slaves and Laydren guests cowered as the clouds darkened, thunder rolling.
“Sorry,” Sterin mumbled.
“I did not summon you here for you to insult your betters. If you wish to ever return to our house, you must learn to speak with respect,” the mother growled.
“Yes, mother,” Sterin nodded sheepishly.
“Listen closely. The Emperor has reviewed my claim and has proposed a pardon. Provided of course you meet certain, conditions,” the woman said softly.
A slight glimmer of hope arose in Sterin’s chest.
“What conditions?” Sterin asked softly.
“The Banished ones are divided. And are causing our realm quite the nuisance. There are several banished aboard your ships. As they reveal themselves to you, you must kill them,” the woman said sharply.
“Why?” Sterin snapped.
“Because they are trying to bring the Celestial Father unto our realm,” the mother said.
“I thought our houses wanted Alpha Centurion to return?” Sterin asked.
“You dare speak his name?!” her brother shouted from beyond the pavilion.
“Hold your tongue!” the mother growled.
“And as for you, it would be wise of you to address him by the only title you are worthy to utter,” the mother sighed.
“Fine. I thought you all wanted him to come,” Sterin rolled her eyes.
“Have you learned nothing, child? If he returns, our entire way of life will be uprooted,” the mother snapped.
“So, the houses lose their privileges? Our people will find out the truth, big deal,” Sterin growled.
“And you, along with the rest of us, will be dead, our shattered souls scattered among the stars. Do you want your very essence to be cast into the fiery pits of some dark hole in the abyss of space? No? Good. Then listen closely, my wayward failure of a spawn. The banished must not bring back the celestial father. The humans must receive the item you were dispatched to retrieve. Failure to do so will result in the collapse of their civilization, and usher in the doom of ours. Do you understand you impotent thing?” the mother sneered.
Sterin’s chin trembled as she silently nodded, staring at the floor.
“Good. Now, go fulfill these conditions, and maybe I shall have a daughter again. Get out of my sight,” the mother barked.
Sterin’s mother snapped her gold painted fingers, and the vision vanished in an instant.
Sterin jolted upright in bed, covered in cold sweat, screaming. The blurry room focused, as a leathery hand lay on her shoulder. She snapped her head to the left and saw Chief Baba smiling. He was sitting on a chair, his wooden cane nestled on his legs. By her feet, her pets where stirring from slumber.
“Mistress!” the female grinned.
“Let’s go get her something to freshen up,” the male said softly.
The two scantily clad humans crawled out of bed. Sterin greedily drank in their nearly exposed forms. She grimaced.
“Put some clothes on you tarts,” Sterin grumbled, lying back down.
“Yes mistress,” the male nodded.
The two humans pulled some dark luxury robes on and left the cabin.
“Lovers no leave you side,” Baba smiled.
“That’s why they’re the best,” Sterin sighed.
Baba nodded softly, tucking the blanket over her again. Her torso was wrapped in medical bandages, as her energy softly simmered in Laydren Form, healing her.
“How long was I out?” Sterin asked softly.
“Many day. Miken sail far past star. We close,” Baba nodded.
“Has Chang caused any more problems?” Sterin grumbled.
“He try speak to Zion. We say no. He do anyway. Big freak out. We lock him in brig,” Chief Baba shrugged.
“What was he freaking out about?” Sterin arched an eyebrow.
“Accuse human of being bad one,” Baba sighed.
“Of course, some of them are Dark Axium. We’ll deal with them when we arrive,” Sterin said.
Baba silently nodded. Sterin looked out her window, watching the wall of bright colors speed past.
“I spoke to my mother,” Sterin grumbled.
“Dream speak?” Baba asked softly.
Sterin silently nodded.
“What say?”
Sterin grimaced. She rolled over, her back to her mentor, tears forming in her eye. Baba softly patted her back reassuringly with his clawed leathery hand.
“Brood mother, often time no like cub. We you tribe,” Baba said.
“She offered my place back, if we get the humans what they want.”
“Laydren no help anyone. Why help human?”
“Because the dark humans are trying to bring back Alpha Centurion.”
“Aug boog an zore,” Baba sighed.
Sterin huffed. She just wanted to stay in bed and sulk. She had failed miserably, gotten who knows how many people killed, Aine died, she lost the station, and now her witch of a mother was once again trying to overbear her life. She just wanted to drink and stay in bed the rest of the voyage. Suddenly, the overhead speakers crackled.
“Captain to the bridge, captain to the bridge,” a man’s voice chimed.
“Oh, for fucks sake! What now?!” Sterin moaned, pulling the covers overhead.
“Want me check?” Baba asked.
“No. Go back down to the bowels and check up on your boys, I got whatever this is,” Sterin groaned.
“See you soon, cub,” Baba nodded.
The old chief got up with a groan and walked out of the cabin. Sterin huffed, threw the covers off herself, and gingerly got out of bed. She pain stakenly put her jacket and peans on, her exposed abs showing as she gritted her teeth, putting her boots on. Satisfied, Sterin slowly meandered over to the cabin door. Odd, her pets weren’t back yet.
Sterin opened the cabin door and studied the empty corridor. Strange, whatever. She shrugged it off, and walked down the hall, entering the elevator. She pushed the buttons and impatiently tapped her foot, arms crossed. The doors dinged, sliding open as the bridge spanned out before her.
Sterin strolled out, noticing no one was around. No crew at the controls or consoles, not a single Spree in sight. Merely a blonde man sitting on her throne. As she approached, he swiveled the throne around to face her.
“Shrike, is it? The fuck you are doing in my chair?” Sterin growled.
Shrike simply smiled, standing up. He held his hands behind his back as he descended the stairs, slowly walking towards her. Sterin slowed to a halt as several other blonde men identical to shrike appeared out of the darkness. One held a gagged and cuffed Mai Chang, with a gun to his head. The other two had the pets restrained as well.
“Cloning energy? Really? Oh, and keep the pets tied up, they like that kind of shit. What is this?” Sterin laughed.
The lead Shrike merely smiled.
“I am simply the messenger,” he shrugged.
His eyes rolled into the back of his head. His body erupted with red fire, his clothes and skin evaporating. The flames settled down, as a man’s form simmered around the Shrike underneath. Sterin’s eyes widened, as she saw it was a seven-foot tall Laydren male with gold hair, eye liner, and a black Ashura. The energy projection of a cloner prime.
“Hello, cousin,” the Shrike Prime grinned.
“Draycerion,” Sterin growled.
“I am surprised you remember my name, it has been so long,” Shrike Prime cackled.
“And what I have I done to merit a visit from the Puppet Master?” Sterin spat.
Her energy slowly activated, white energy sparking from her body.
“You are bound to find something I have been after for a very, very long-time dear cousin. Sure, you charging head long into the Sylos was predictable. But, to doubt the humans despite doing their bidding? You surprise me. I would have thought you had learned your lesson. When I saw Chang through the eyes of my replicants, I for sure thought my agents cover was blown. You never cease to disappoint me,” Shrike Prime sighed.
“Once I’m done killing these fuckers, I’m turning this ship around and coming back to kill you,” Sterin spat.
“In your state? I doubt you could kill these little pets of yours,” Shrike Prime laughed.
A massive force slammed into her knee, and it snapped as she howled. A woman with white hair, pure black fire engaged, bearing a mace had snuck up on her. Around the room, a circle of bald humans with black make up, armor and fire revealed themselves, their batwings and long lines of ethereal energy flicking and winding themselves about in the air.
“So subtle, so sweet,” Shrike Prime cackled.
The Shrike encased by the energy projection slowly walked over to the male pet. His hand turned into a claw, and gently ran down the whimpering man’s face.
“Leave them alone!” Sterin cried.
Shrike sighed. He withdrew and walked over to Chang Mai.
“A bit of advice, fair cousin. Either trust the humans, or don’t work with them at all. Working behind your masters back is what got you banished from our ever so glorious empire after all,” Shrike Prime chimed.
“You framed me!” Sterin howled.
“Did I?” Shrike Prime gasped, clutching his chest with hands.
“Ah yes! Now I remember, I sold that whore you called a niece to Marshelion, then dirtied the dead Empress’s chambers with your DNA. A rather clumsy execution, by far my worst work, but oh how you raged, and burned. You might as well have done it, the amount of loyalists you killed in your fury. Oh, so many innocent people you murdered, simply because of my hints and prodding. I dare not call it manipulation, far too strong a word for such a simple maneuver,” Shrike Prime grinned.
Shrike Prime grabbed Chang by the Hair, the giant kicking his knee in and sending Mai to his knees.
“And now, here we are. Once again, Captain Sterin has murdered innocent. Killing all the survivors of an overrun station? Tsk, tsk. And helping propel Zion into war with its strongest human dimension! Your mother would be very proud indeed. Oh, so sorry Chang, almost forgot,” Shrike Prime tutted.
The Prime leaned down, and wrapped a finger around the gag, pulling it down. Chang Mai didn’t say a word, not breaking defiant eye contact with the Shrike.
“My! Now this one is feisty! Forgive me, it’s nothing personal. I simply need your death to cover my tracks as I usher in the Celestial Father. Wet work and all that, I’m sure as one professional to another you can understand,” Shrike Prime smiled.
“My only regret is not being able to witness what the Vagabonds are going to do to you,” Mai grinned.
“Mmmm. Yes. The lovely bunch of dithering idiots used by higher powers to enact their will. And they call me the Puppet Master. If only they knew. Well, goodbye old boy, hopefully you can ascend again in the next life. If there’s still a humanity left of course,” Shrike Prime chimed.
Shrike Prime pulled his arm back and swiped downward with the claw. Chang Mai’s head was cut clean off his shoulders, rolling away. The other shrikes ignited their energies and burned the pets alive.
Sterin screamed and scrambled, trying to rise from the ground. The woman with the white hair stomped down on the captain’s back with her black boot, cracking several ribs. Sterin gasped, coughing blood as she sobbed.
“Look closely, sweetheart. You are witnessing the next chapter of history,” the white-haired woman seethed.
“Moira, you conniving bitch!” Sterin gurgled.
Sterin watched in horror as Shrike Prime twirled his hand. Chang Mai’s head rolled across the floor, back to his body. The head and the body began regrowing flesh and vein, reattaching. The pet’s bodies healed almost instantly, their skin regrowing. Their bodies shifted, their hair growing blonde, skin paling. Their bodies where gone, as three more Shrike Replicants stood up, dusting themselves off in their former selves’ clothes.
The Shrike who had formerly been Chang Mai levitated in the air, his purple energy glowing. A long stream of grey light left his body, absorbed by Shrike Prime. The former Chang collapsed, without any energy. Shrike Prime licked his lips, his eyes glowing purple as he twirled a grey glaive made of energy.
“You will always only be a syphon! You never earned anything in your life, always stealing what others fought for!” Sterin groaned.
Shrike Prime shrugged exaggeratively.
“And you will always be the loose cannon no one can trust. I was half tempted to simply leave you be, seeing as you always tend to fail, and turn on those you trust you. Just as it is my nature to bend the weak, and guide them to a much better purpose, so too is it your nature to fail. Miserably,” Draycerion grinned.
He turned to the replicants.
“Turn the crews, bring that relic back to Barouge while I deal with the approaching reinforcements,” the Prime ordered.
“Yes, my lord,” the Shrikes all said as one.
“Why are you doing this? Alpha Centurion is going to use your soul as a fuck toy the moment he arrives!” Sterin whimpered.
“Not if I absorb every light bearer, relic, and ethereal in the sector. When he arrives, we shall meet as equals. We will duel, I shall absorb him, and become the true and only master. All life will be in my image!” Shrike Prime roared.
“You’re fucking insane!” Sterin screeched.
“You could have joined me! You could have been my wife and ushered in the next era of our kind! But how did you repay my love? With insults and humiliation!” Draycerion shouted.
“All of this because I rejected you. At least I’m not the galaxies saltiest bitch! I just wish I had killed you when you tried to rape me instead of tattling. I’m not making the same mistake twice,” Sterin gritted her teeth.
“Is that what you call it? I will have you when I am finished with this universe,” Draycerion boomed.
“Over my dead, rotting corpse,” Sterin gnashed her teeth.
Draycerion pointed his finger.
“Keep that thing alive, I will have her when you return to Barouge.”
“My lord,” the Shrikes nodded.
“What I will do to you will not be an act of love, but a reminder of your place. You will live, and you will bear my dynasty as the putrid slave you so desperately crave to be!” Draycerion snarled.
“I’ll fucking kill you!”
Shrike Prime tutted, then dissolved. The Shrike who had borne the energy projection crumpled to the floor, convulsing as energy spackled from his skin. As the Dark Axium pushed in, soft clattering, so soft only Sterin who was accustomed to every sound the ship made out, drifted to her ears. She sniffed and picked up a delicious scent.
Raw, unbridled, blood lust. A savage, animalistic, barely contained need to eat, tear, and kill. Moira grabbed Sterin’s should and flipped her unto her back. Sterin grinned.
“Always loved being on top, didn’t you skank,” Sterin cackled.
Moira held her mace over her head.
“He said keep you alive, didn’t say nothing about breaking some more bones,” Moira grinned.
Sterin looked past her former lovers face and gazed up at Chief Baba clinging the ceiling with his clawed hands and feet. His rows of shark like teeth where showing, his pupils the sizer of coins as he grinned. Drool was gently beginning to fall from his mow.
The entire ceiling was crawling with half a hundred Spree who had squeezed their bodies through the ventilation shafts, and where now clinging to the ceiling, waiting for the order to drop. In the Dark Axium’s feeble attempt at a dramatic entrance via near darkness, they had given the tiny dwarf like creatures the perfect terrain for the ideal ambush.
“Why don’t you sit on mommy’s face, one last time, while that delicious body is still in piece?” Sterin asked innocently.
“The fuck are you-”
“ZU WAH!!!!!!”
Chief Baba fell from the ceiling, and inserted his clawed feet into her back, his clawed hands ripping her face apart as his many rows of teeth sunk into her neck. She death gurgled and collapsed as Baba snapped her neck with his locked jaw. The Spree fell like bats from a cavern ceiling, tearing and slashing. The Shrikes and Darktars shrieked, trying to fight back. But each person had at least four Spree tearing off limbs, peeling skin, biting, clawing, slashing, stabbing. The bridge became a slaughterhouse as the two sides fought.
Some Dark Tars managed to break free from the carnage, missing limbs, or large swathes of skin. They didn’t make it far as more Spree flooded in from the ventilation shafts. War drums began beating over the intercoms as the sound of screams, snapping bones, pleas and wails filled the air.
Chief baba stood up, holding Moira’s shredded head by the hair as he roared. The Spree triumphantly held their weapons over their heads. Sterin waved her hand, and several of her warriors came over. They helped her up and carried her to her throne. Sterin painfully sat down on the captains chair as Baba came over. He knelt, offering his captain Moira’s head. She took it, spat on it, then threw it behind the throne.
“Kill them all,” Sterin seethed.
“ZOOOOOOOL!” Baba roared.
The Spree thundered, and sprinted for the elevator, stairs, and ventilation shafts. Baba looked at her.
“Cub hurt,” he said gently.
“I’m fine,” Sterin spat, holding back tears.
Baba silently lay his hands on her, his bright red energy flowing into her body. Relief filled her as she felt her body stabilizing. As the Chief worked, several of the Spree Shamans circled them, energies deployed, chanting in Spree.
“Thank you, old friend,” Sterin half smiled.
Baba nodded firmly, then walked away.
As gunfire and screams filled the ship, Sterin swiveled her throne back around, facing the tunnel of light. She intertwined her fingers, hate and sorrow filling her. Draycerion would pay for this. She would make sure of this.