RE: Monarch

But now, watching the monster transform, I felt that plan slowly deflate to nothing. Its limbs extended further, body stretching out. Armor and clothing sloughed to the floor. Before the transformation, I would have estimated the infernal stood no taller than five feet. Now it was close to seven, body mass shriveling and desiccating in a wreath of torn and tattered flesh. The abomination’s left arm had shriveled to the size of a child’s, it’s right growing garishly long, hand and fingers discarded for an elongated section of forearm that had split in two, looking almost like a wishbone. Electricity crackled loudly between the two points of bone, the air itself gaining charge.

My attention was split between the new monster and the captain, who still advanced on me. The captain stared at me, only finally turning to look when several infernals around the monster yelled out in alarm. His jaw dropped.

Okay. So, he didn’t know.

The fighting slowed, all parties backing away except for Kastramoth, who stood stubbornly next to the tunnel, still guarding it. Vogrin appeared at my side, his expression pale.

“What the hells is that?” I asked.

He looked as if he might answer, then held back. “I don’t know.”

A theory sprouted in my mind, taking root. The reason the cowled magician hadn’t held his troops back. I called out to the captain. “Those supplies you took.”

“What?” The captain snapped in confusion, as if unable to imagine why I’d be speaking to him in these circumstances.

“You said you got gold and supplies from the human. Did any of those supplies include potions, by chance? Poultices?”

“Nothing out of the ordinary, just supplements for endurance and…” he trailed off, confusion fading to horror.

“How many of your men took them?”

“All of us,” he said, face slackening as the reality of the situation dawned on him.

Idiots. All of them. Gods dammit.

“Teos?” A red infernal in heavy armor approached the creature cautiously. “Lord below.” He kept saying the name, as if he couldn’t believe the infernal he knew and this thing were the same person. “Teos—“

The monster hacked a heavy, wet cough, spattering the infernal in dark-red blood. There was a low hissing like droplets of water splashing onto a fire. The infernal in heavy armor put a hand to his face, clearly in shock, then began to scream, clawing at his face, sending his helmet clattering to the floor. The spots of skin around his face that the abomination spattered with blood were sizzling, turning black. Another infernal dragged him away and dumped a water skin over his head. It didn’t seem to help.

The abomination watched the proceedings, its misaligned eyes hooded, looking almost docile and faraway. Then, it titled its head and held it’s elongated arm towards me.

“Slaughter.” It howled, its voice raw and inhuman. Then, the electricity grew between the prongs of its forearms, forming an arcing ball. There was a high-pitched shrieking sound as the ball flew towards me. I formed an aegis, only to have it immediately shatter, nerves on fire as my arm jerked involuntarily.

The captain seemed to recover himself then, and yelled at his men. I didn’t hear what was said, but judging from how every infernal seemed to be preparing to fight, I assumed he had ascertained that the monster was on his side and planned to press the advantage.

Everyone stayed away from the monster, who hung at the back, howling and sending massive projectiles towards me and the others, scattering us every time we drew close together. Bell managed to fell a fire magician, cutting him off at the knees. He rose, his rib cage extending and augmenting through his skin, fire setting him perpetually aflame as he skittered around supine on his rib cage. The fire he conjured itself seemed hotter, more dazzlingly red.

After that, the fight turned desperate. Ugly. The infernal mercenaries had connected the dots. When they fell, they changed. Their efforts redoubled, pushed forward by adrenaline and fear.

The captain continued to harry me with blows, each faster and more desperate than the last. He was sloppier than he had been, but that didn’t mean much if he kept me so busy it was impossible to think beyond avoiding the next attack.

Jorra focused on the fire abomination, chasing after it, trying to extinguish its flames and prevent it from ambushing us from behind. It was fast, but Jorra was faster, using his whip and patches of ice to slide beneath striking weapons and between legs. He dropped a wave of water on it, and it howled, skittering away, the fire temporarily doused to embers.

The first abomination lowered its arm at me, and I felt the hair on the back of my neck start to rise as the electricity arced dangerously across its arm. It was bowled over by Kastramoth, who had finally abandoned his posting at the tunnel. He stomped on it, leveraging his full weight, and I heard the sounds of multiple bones splintering. Then, the abomination pressed his prong against Kastramoth’s gut, and both slumped and shuddered.

A sword bit into my armor, glowing purple. The void washed over me and I jumped away, glaring at the infernal that had interrupted my duel. My sword extinguished, and I was trapped between the two of them, the void blocking my leylines and rendering me unable to externalize mana. The two of them pressed me and I found myself pushed back. Void was the weakness of most magicians, and I was no exception. A sword caught my shoulder, another my side. I tried to trap one, force them to bump into each other, but they were too well-trained and kept their distance. I pulled a handful of flash-powder from my satchel, but the flat of a blade caught my wrist before I could combust it.

More void.

We were going to lose. And it was my call. My fault.

Maya vaulted over me, using the tip of her staff to propel herself into the two overwhelming me. She hit them high and hard, and her hand went to the void magician's throat, hand green. He hit the ground, paralyzed. She lashed out at the captains face, and he took a leap backward. Before he could follow up, Maya was on me.

“Call for help when you need it, Ni’lend.” She grabbed my arm and warmth flowed through me.

“I was fine,” I groused.

“Sure you were.” She smiled. Then I pushed her to the side as the captain called a half-dozen spikes from the ground in a vertical line.

“I don’t want to distract you, but I wouldn’t be much of an advisor if I didn’t say that now would be a good time to stop holding back.” Vogrin whispered in my ear. I turned back towards the clearing, and saw that a third abomination had risen. Another fire magician.

I gritted my teeth. He wasn’t wrong, but the problem was a tactical one. The infernal group was staying mostly cautious around the abominations. If I went all out and killed the abominations, they would descend on us hard, trying to end things quickly. I needed to strike a balance. And for what it was worth, he was right. I couldn’t go easy.

The captain faked left and went right, juking around Maya and leaping straight towards me, as he had at the beginning of the fight. A massive stone fist drove directly at my face. There was no point in blocking it. I hadn’t completely recovered from the void effect and the aegis would shatter immediately. Instead, I directed the flow of mana into my left arm. Into Ozra’s inscription.

I held out my hand and caught his fist. There was a shockwave that sent up dust and debris. The captain stared in shock, staring at my hand. My gauntlet had disintegrated in the impact, and my arm had turned black up to my elbow. My fingers extended into claws. I flexed my wrist, the points of my fingers digging into his hand and he grunted, going down on one knee, his eyes widening.

“You should have taken my offer,” I growled. Without taking the time to think about it, I grabbed him by the shoulder for leverage and raked my dark razored fingers up his arm. They dug in through the armor easily, tearing through ligaments and veins.

From the other side, Jorra froze, staring at the blood, the aftermath of the captain falling back, clutching at his ruined appendage, trying to staunch the flow. He turned back to the abomination, but the distraction had costed him. It wiggled out from beneath another body and leapt atop him. He held back from his face barely, its ruined mouth snapping shut over and over.

“Jorra!” I yelled out. But Maya was faster, already halfway across the clearing before I’d even registered what had happened. She swung her bow in a downward its face, and it skittered backwards.

But she wasn’t expecting what happened next. You hit a normal living being, you expect a reaction, a moment of shock before the recovery. But these things were anything but normal. It lurched backwards, then immediately skittered forwards, using the power of its back legs to throw itself towards her. Maya held her hands up a moment too late. Long, bone-like fangs sunk into her shoulder.

I roared. I ignored the captain bleeding out at my feet and ran, sword held above my head. Bell got there a second before me and stabbed the abomination through its side, yanking its head back. Displaying its fangs. I swung with all my strength, not even bothering to angle the blade, and the abomination’s head cracked open beneath the flat of my blade. It wriggled on its back, trying to right itself before I brought my sword down through its guts, pinning it to the ground. Violet fire spread from its abdomen and I called to it, pouring mana through it, flames growing so hot it was nigh unbearable.

The thing wriggled, its death knell crooning higher and higher in pitch until I reached down with my left hand and crushed its skull, its remains splattering out against the ground. The flames surrounded me, warming me.

I saw movement out of the corner of my eye. One of the remaining infernals. He stood up, preparing to charge and then froze in my gaze. I walked towards him slowly, letting the tip of my sword drag, leaving a trail of flame. Two more behind him tensed.

“Go.” I said. Kastramoth had just disentangled himself from the third abomination, leaving it crushed on the floor. The others didn’t move, but discretely eyed the exit. ”Go now.” I repeated, my voice raw, just below a roar. Something dripped off my left hand. ”Or you will wish that you had.”

That was all it took. The infernals broke ranks and fled down the tunnel.

As soon as they were out of sight, my entire body began to shake. I turned and went to Maya’s side. Her face was pale, each breath heavy and labored. Jorra was crying at her side, his stoic act nowhere to be seen. Bell looked between them, not knowing what to do. I knew how she felt.

I went to my knees next to her. “Maya.”

“We… won?” Maya asked.

“We won,” I confirmed.

“Those things, what were they?” Maya asked. A variety of alarms began to sound in my head. She sounded distant. Far away. I tore the fabric around her shoulder to expose the wound. There were two symmetrical puncture wounds just above the joint of her shoulder. The skin had grown white and discolored, and it was hot to the choice.

Poison. No, venom. Fuck. The location was bad, less than a foot from her heart.

“Maya, can you answer a few questions for me?” I asked, reaching in my bag in a panic then giving up and dumping it out. A dozen vials fell free and bounced against the moss, clinking together.”

“Okay.” Her voice sounded weak.

“Tell me what you feel right now?” I said, trying to keep my voice calm. I read the labels of the vials in order. A dozen different antidotes, some for the poisons I carried in the situation of a self-dose, some for snake bites, some for well-known poisons, others for insects.

“I’m freezing.”

I stopped in the middle of scooping up another vial. It wasn’t the symptom itself, but how she’d said it. “I’m.” Maya rarely used conjunctions. We’d talked about it. When she was learning common, she struggled with them. Though she was more than comfortable with the language now, she still avoided because of prior associations. It felt like a bad sign. Pure panic went through me.

“Anything else?” I asked.

“My stomach. It’s all twisted up.”

“What can I do?” Bell asked, unknowingly echoing another child at another bedside. I closed my eyes. That was a comparison I didn’t want.

“Stretch her legs out Bell.” I pointed to Maya’s legs, and Bell moved quickly, with surprisingly gentleness. In the background, I saw Kastramoth sit across from us, next to a tree.

He’s just waiting it out.

I let my fingers dig into the moss, extinguishing my anger. Vogrin drifted over, looking at Maya, placing a finger lightly against her shoulder. “It’s spreading,” he said matter-of-factly. I glanced over, and saw a series of angry marks traveling down about an inch above the wound.

“Okay. Good to know. Thank you, Vogrin.” I tried to detach myself. Tried to tell myself that it didn’t matter. That if I activated the suicide mark, I’d have another chance, ignoring my doubts about whether I would. But it didn’t help. Nothing helped.

“Cairn,” Jorra begged, “Please do something. Anything.”

“I’m working on it.”

Vogrin drifted over towards me, and for the first time since I’d met him, stopped floating, and landed on his knees next to me, looking through the vials.

“Do you have Flusurian Ichor?”

I shook my head. The ichor was well known as a universal remedial, but it was rare, and I hadn’t been able to get my hands on any. My mind hitched, running through antidote after antidote after palliative, down to the individual herbs. There was something, there had to be.

“What are you thinking?” Vogrin asked, his voice lower.

“I don’t know. We don’t know what they were. Some sort of magical construct, maybe, if they’re a product of that cowled asshole.”

“Though I don’t recognize them, transmutation is a field I’m familiar with. Poison and venom from biological constructs tend to be closely tied to the creatures they’re mimicking.”

I stopped. Thought on that. The rib-legs and fangs. It was closest to a spider.

“What’s Flusurian Ichor?” Jorra asked. He was standing, wiping his eyes angrily.

When I ignored him, Vogrin answered the question. “It comes from an undead sprite. It’s very rare.”

“Are they down here, in the sanctum?” Jorra asked. There was a dangerous edge to his voice. I recognized it. It was the desperation to do something, anything.

“Jorra, don’t.” I said, cobbling together all the anti-venom I had for insects, trying to organize. I’d have to go with a scattershot approach. Figure out which of them could be mixed without mitigating effects or creating toxicity in the final product. Maya’s hand clutched at my leg and I ignored her, pulling out a mixing bowl, and splashing the products together.

“What do they look like?” Jorra asked, his voice rising in pitch.

Vogrin glanced over at me, and answered when I said nothing. “Like far with demon blood. Pointed teeth. A crow’s wings.”

I put the mixture together and stirred vigorously, so focused in my work that I almost missed the footsteps running away.

“Jorra!” I yelled after him, staring at his back as he disappeared into the forest. Bell was staring down at Maya. Her light eyes had tinged pink. Bursted capillaries. Increased blood pressure. Not good. Not good.

I clapped my hands in front of Bell’s face and pointed the way Jorra had gone. “Go after him. Please. I have to stay.” My voice cracked on the last word. Bell came back to herself quickly, starting at the clap, and seemed to realize that Jorra was gone. Bell nodded once and sprinted after him. Everything was falling apart. We had no idea what this chamber was like, what they might run into. But I couldn’t think about that. I had to focus solely on one person.

“Maya?” I called out to her—as much to ensure she was still with me as to keep her attention. Her head tilted my way. She smiled, then cringed in pain. “I need you to drink this,” I said. She reached up to take the cup, but the motion was so weak I didn’t trust her to hold it. Instead, I propped her head and scooted in, using my thigh as a brace, held it to her lips, and poured.

My mind traveled back to my mother’s sick room, sponging water into her mouth as she lay there, catatonic. I shook my head vigorously. Not the time. I needed to be sharp, be present.

Maya started coughing halfway through. “Gods… that’s terrible.”

I pulled the cup away, gave her a moment, and then replaced it. “I know. Almost done.”

“I need to sit.

“You have to stay still, Maya.”

“It’s burning.” Tears gathered in the corner of her eyes. She clutched her throat.

“What’s burning?” I stroked her face, put the back of my hand against her forehead.

“My chest, my throat.” Maya coughed, the sound heavy with fluid, followed by a gag.

I pulled Maya up gently, placing her back against my chest and held her, unsure of how to comfort her. Vogrin watched quietly. After a moment, he wordlessly pointed to her chest. There were a series of red marks following the circulation of blood, down towards her heart. I shook my head, angrily. No. The antidotes would work. I’d prepared.

I’d prepared.

Vogrin disappeared in the direction Jorra had gone.

The clearing, so loud with the noise of the wounded and the sound of magic earlier was silent.

Maya shuddered in my arms. I did my best to hold her still, keep her steady. All the while, my anger grew alongside my despair. If it had been anyone but her, it would have been okay. But she couldn’t use healing magic on herself. For some reason, my thoughts went to that first loop in the enclave. When I’d awakened to my second element.

It gave me an idea.

My voice was barely more than a whisper. “Touch your soul to mine.”

Maya stiffened, and I suddenly felt guilty, like I had to explain myself. “Both times I awakened, I was backed into a corner. There’s a chance, isn’t there? A possibility of transference… I know it’s not a guarantee, and it’s a sacred thing, but if there’s even the smallest possibility I might be able to heal you…”

Her back shuddered in a rhythmic pattern. For a single horrified moment, I thought she was sobbing. Then I heard the sound I realized it was the opposite. Laughing, instead of crying.

“Okay, well, I’m glad you find this funny.” I felt my face growing red.

“I am not laughing at you, Ni’lend. I am laughing because we are so similar.” The chuckling trailed off, and she heaved for breath. Then she reached back and touched my face. Something tickled at the back of my mind. A reminder of a conversation I thought I’d imagined.

So be it. But there is a something you must do.

“… When?” I asked.

“When we first reached the enclave,” Maya said, shaking her head, her voice far away. “Your soul was in tatters. There was nothing I could do for you. Nothing any healer could do for you. You had just saved my life twice over, and they wanted to let you die. I begged for aid. Made a fool of myself. No one could understand why. They did not know you like I knew you. They did not understand.”

My jaw worked, as I put the pieces together. “Ephira.”

“Not… directly. A magician came to me, from the healing quarter. I take it she was one of Ephira’s. She came under the guise of offering assistance but what she really wanted was to take you away. To ensure you died outside the enclave. And in my panic to save your life, I betrayed your nature. Your visions. I… am sorry for that.”

“Don’t be sorry.” I said. “Don’t be sorry. You kept me alive. I’m not sorry.” There was some part of me that didn’t want to hear more. Every word was agony. Every word made it worse. But I didn’t dare interrupt her.

“The magician gave up when it became clear I would not let you go. But before she left, she said if I tied my soul to yours, there was a chance you might live through the night. She almost said it like an insult…” Maya’s head started to slide down my chest and I shifted to move it back into place, then buried my head in her hair.

The selflessness of it staggered me.

“So, you did it.” I whispered. My vision blurred.

“Mother was so angry.” Maya sighed.

I thought back to the way Nethtari had treated me, when I’d first awakened in Guemon’s cell. The suspicion. The coldness. And the borderline hostility when I got too close to Maya.

“I thought she hated me.” I admitted.

“From getting me back, to finding out I’d brought a human prince home with me, to finding out I’d tied my soul to his. She thought you planned to steal me away.” Maya snickered, and I couldn’t help but laugh.

“So rebellious.”

“I was… I am sorry, Cairn.”

“Stop saying sorry.”

“No. For this, I must be. I’m sorry I did not ask your permission.”

“You were looking out for me.”

“Please understand that I did what I did with no expectations. I knew that your heart was taken.”

That’s right. I told you about Lillian. Outside Kholis. But you did it anyway.

“Why give that up?” I asked, my voice raw.

“Well, you did save my life. That factored in.” Maya laughed. “But the visions… you saw your city burned, and your people slaughtered, and despite all that, you chose to extend an open hand rather than a fist—“ A series of explosive coughs racked Maya’s body, and she leaned over to spit blood onto the ground. “That was so beautiful, to me. The better world you spoke of so passionately. I fell in love… with the idea. I wanted to be there to watch you build it. After the sanctum, I wanted to join you, if you would have me. As a trusted friend. And that would have been enough.”

“I was…” I cleared my throat and tried again. “I was going to ask—“ Maya’s head rolled back, and I gripped her tightly as she started to seize. Her breath came in shallower gasps and her hands dug into my arms, nails digging into my skin and drawing blood as her back arched in one final, horrible breath. There was a rattle, deep and horrible. Then her face froze, her mouth slackened, eyes staring at nothing.

I was going to ask you to come with me. Because I can’t imagine doing all that without you.

Slowly, I lowered her to the ground. The tears didn’t come. Because as much as it hurt, as raw as it was, I knew the truth. I couldn’t let it end this way. It didn’t matter if it was logical, or rational. It was right.

I closed her eyes gently, and felt my chest hitch.

“See you soon, Ni’lend.”

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