RE: Monarch

The responsibility I was trusting her with was enormous. Something many would consider to be cruel. But it was the only way.

“You don’t have to go through with it,” I put an arm around her shoulder and pulled her to me gently. “Just tell me now, if you can’t.”

“No,” Bell shook her head. “It was my idea. I can do it.” She turned her head up to look at me. “But if there’s any other way, please don’t make me.”

There were footsteps behind us, and I quickly covered the scrawled lines in the dirt with my foot. Bellarex stood quickly and left, tilting her face away from Maya as she left.

“It is a mess out there. The Decarabia are all over the place. There’s no way we’re getting to The Heart without fighting our way through. Is everything… alright? Maya watched Bellarex hurry by, then looked at me quizzically.

“She’s fine,” I said. Maya’s eyebrow rose. “Will be, anyway. It was an ordeal getting back to us, and she wasn’t sure she was going to make it. It’s only naturally for her to be shaken.”

Maya’s expression softened. “I am glad she’s safe. Perhaps it was wrong of me to ask you to go back. Premature.”

I waited for the other shoe to fall.

“Maya craned her neck, trying to catch sight of where the younger infernal had disappeared to. “Anything off?“

“Bell. The timing of her returning to us and amount of luck her story requires. Jorra is too overjoyed to notice, but I’m guessing you that is why you pulled her away.”

“There are things Bell’s not telling,” I hedged, “but she’s still with us. And that’s what matters.”

“How familiar.” Maya sounded distant. “You’re not as clever as you think, Cairn. I know Jorra is wrong. You don’t intend to surrender yourself to Thoth.”

I tapped my cheek. “I’ve got a growing bruise that says otherwise.”

Maya ignored me. “But you’re letting him—letting us—believe that you might, which, judging from recent history, means this is either all a misdirect or it’s intended to serve another purpose.”

As usual, Maya saw straight through me. The cold, ebbing tiredness sunk deeper until my very bones seemed to ache. A hum emitted from my augury ring, and it let out a dull glow.

Maya stared down at hers. “She’s hunting us, still.”

I preferred not to lie to her. I was tired of lying. So, I gave her the only solace I could. Grunting, I reached in my jacket pocket, pulled out a wrinkled envelope, and handed it to her. She took it from me, puzzled.

“What is this?”

“Instructions. For after the battle, if things don’t go our way.”

“I—“

“There’s a gap in patrols!” Jorra was panting as he approached. “The asmodials are about to capitalize on it. If we wait until after the fighting starts, we might be able to slip through.” He motioned for us to follow him and went back in the direction Bell had gone.

I stood to follow him. “Let’s go.”

Maya caught my arm. “If I decided to leave the Sanctum. Decided I could stomach it, maybe even control it. This darkness I carry. Would it always be like this? Living on the edge of a knife. Daggers in the dark?” There was a desperate need in her eyes for encouragement, reassurance. And the worst part was, I had no right to give it to her.

“I don’t know.”

/////

I drove my sword deep into a demon’s back. It roared, wrenching away, nearly tearing the hilt from my hand, its eyeless face a mask of furious porcelain. Metallic talons lashed back at me in a flash of gold, trying to tear me off.

We’d nearly made it to the heart. It was a half-mile away, if that, in clear view atop a slow-summiting hill. I hadn’t recognized it at first. It looked more like a war camp now, complete with barricades, towers, and extended steel spikes. Hundreds of infernals milled within, with some of them watching out. It was a relief that they’d been able to consolidate and fortify to such a degree, the level of quick construction likely a result of hundreds of competent magicians working together.

And yet, somehow, my father still conquered them.

It was a cold reminder that all the magic in the world could be bested with the proper application of strategy, guile, and brutality. Perhaps my only remaining hope against Thoth.

We’d managed to move quickly through the battlefield, using the asmodials for cover, until the small scuffle merged into a much larger one, as several greater demons and their followers took the field on either side. The once pristine blue grass was painted with the black of demon blood and quickly spreading fires.

I tried to rip my sword free and found it stuck. The demon screeched, its claws finally finding purchase, slashing through the upper skin of my thigh. Frustrated, I looked around for help. Kastramoth was in the thick of the fight. Maya and Jorra were back to back, covering each other against an onslaught of pixie sized Decarabia. Bell made leaping bounds across the shoulders and heads of many disgruntled asmodials and decarabia alike, trying desperately to ground a flying greater demon that was peppering us with artillery. And Vogrin, of course, was still missing in action.

All of them, either preoccupied or too far away to help. Which left me with a problem. I could either stay mounted on the equivalent of a raging tiger or leave my sword, the latter being practically a death sentence. No. I had to handle this myself.

With a burst of mana, I ignited the violet-fire on my sword, letting it spread over the demon’s clothes. It was a gamble. The Dantalion flame couldn’t hurt the demon, but I knew it could be used to banish them after they died. I was banking on the hope that—being as rare as it was—this one didn’t know the exact mechanics.

The reaction was instantaneous. Angry shrieks turned terrified as the demon ran blindly ahead, trying to take off from the ground. I released my sword to wrap my now free arm around its neck, reached over with my gauntlet and tore a hole through its left wing.

It collapsed to the ground, directly in front of the small assortment of lesser asmodials I’d been aiming for. The landing stunned me, but I retained the mental acuity to stagger to my feet, quench the flame, and pull my sword free.

With the fire gone, an asmodial leaped on the felled greater demon. Then another, and another.

I turned from the scene just in time to see the glowing white globe flying towards my chest. I braced, thrust my gauntlet forward and caught it, the impact pushing me back, sliding across blood-slick grass. The gauntlet glowed red, beginning to overheat. The artillery demon was using the same type of magic their Arch-Fiend had used, albeit not nearly as strong. That gave me a point of reference. Somewhat panicked, I sprinted to the spot where Maya and Jorra were still under siege by the flying smaller demons, threw up an aegis directly over my head and held the gauntlet past it.

It detonated in a sphere, battering the aegis and enveloping the smaller demons. They plopped to the ground in a series of thuds, dead or stunned.

One tried to crawl away before the end of Maya’s staff came down, crushing it. “Thanks,” Maya gulped in air. “That was annoying.”

“Looked annoying.” I shifted, looking for the artillery demon in the chaos. The wound on my leg panged, and when I touched it, my fingers came away slick with blood.

Maya’s hand glowed green as she grasped my shoulder. “No vein. Minor muscle damage. You’re good, Ni’lend.”

A demon rushed towards us, draggy a bloody polearm. Jorra reacted before anyone else, lashing out with his whip and catching the demon around the neck. Its mouth opened in surprise for just a second. Then Jorra lashed it downward, hard, and it landed head first on a patch of frozen spikes.

Every demon near us was locked in combat. The pause wouldn’t last long, but we had a moment to collect ourselves.

“The flying one throwing artillery spells is a problem.” Jorra said. The whip snapped back, coiling over his arm.

“Kastramoth is in over his head,” Maya squinted toward the center of the conflict, her face pained.

“Not to be cold, but can’t you just use the contract to resummon?” Jorra asked.

“Yes, but it won’t be today. And we might need him today.” Maya said.

We only had a split second to decide. “Both of you, go save the moose. I’ll help Bell.”

“On it. Signal if you need help.” Jorra took a few short steps then sprinted away, Maya close behind him.

Bell was still chasing the artillery demon, using shoulders, heads, and backs as stepping stones. As impressively acrobatic as it was, it wasn’t sustainable. She was slowing down, faltering, nearly losing her balance. The artillery demon was moving more cautiously than it had before.

Even while trying to keep to the path of least resistance, it took a great deal of effort to force my way through the center, fighting a never-ending current of teeth and claws.

In the end, they ended up coming to me. The artillery demon traded range and accuracy for safety, rising beyond the point where even the highest jump could possibly put Bell in striking range. Bell abandoned trying to hit him with her sword altogether and instead began to fling her engraved weighted rods charged with void. As skilled as she was, her aim was nowhere near as strong as her swordsmanship, and her target was both fast and airborne.

It struck me that, despite being surrounded by arguably stronger enemies, the demon’s attention had shifted almost entirely to Bell when she shifted strategy. Every spell he cast was aimed at keeping her away, knocking her off balance.

Does he use magic to fly?

The other one hadn’t, but was far less mobile. There was something to that. Void had to be the key, but how could I help her land it? I looked for an opening. If I was better with air magic, it would have been a simple matter to lighten myself, ride an errant gust of wind into his blind spot and ground him with a cleave through his wings. But that was pure fancy. I needed to think realistically, use the tools at my disposal. My flash powder? No, the demon was literally eyeless, and I wasn’t fool hardy enough to chalk that up to an aesthetic choice. Could I use the flame to scare him like I’d done earlier, make him hesitate? Probably not. He seemed far more clever than the last demon and less likely to fall for it. I had a bag full of caustics and poisons, with no idea if any of them would be effective. Not to mention, he seemed to have an uncanny ability to dodge.

A memory scratched at my mind from when I was trapped in the runic desert chamber, tossing pebbles charged with mana to lure Saladius’s monsters away. I reached in my bag, rummaging until I found the single smooth stone I’d kept from the encounter to practice on.

I spoke without sound, a now familiar buzzing tickling my vocal cords as my silent words crossed the distance to Bell.

“Make your way here. I need you to charge something, then create a diversion.”

Bell was smart enough not turn my way, but the exasperation on her face seemed to scream that she was tiring of doing exactly that

”Trust me.”

There was a curt nod of acknowledgment. And I began the process of cycling the flame, the very act that wounded my soul at the crossroads, years ago.

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