Chapter 1 - A Light in the Void

-A long time ago-

"Dalatrix, we don't even know what the ritual will do!" a weathered draconic soldier called out across the small conference room. "The Worm refuses to speak on it and our two best arcanists came away with completely different results on it. One says it will make the blessed completely invulnerable and the other claims it would grant strength great enough to hurl that damnable hive all the way to Charisse's city. It can't do both!"

Remaining calm within the heated meeting of the Skyrender war council, Dalatrix nodded quietly as her allies continued to relate the grim state of affairs that faced them.

Before she could give a response to quiet their worries, a thundering sound erupted from outside the small keep, loud enough to make her ears ring and heavy enough to shake the ground.

Smiling a bit as she calmly got to her feet, Dalatrix held a softly growing crystal sphere aloft as she spoke to the desperate dragons arrayed before her.

"My friends and blood sisters...we are out of time. We cannot know if Akuma has truly fallen, but we cannot allow the ritual to fall into the hands of our enemies. I do not trust the Worm any more than you...but I would rather give it to her than to let Charisse and her new Teremir allies touch it."

As she continued to speak, the walls of the heavy stone keep continued to shudder as one great impact after another battered against them, now punctuated by the screams of the defenders in the outermost posts.

Starting to slowly walk toward the hallway that connected to the stairs leading to the surface, Dalatrix continued, "I will not throw away my clan like our former sisters. If it means I will die, crushed under the boot of our enemies like the noble Bloodhorn...then it means only that our enemies fought like dragons."

Dalatrix paused before softly smiling, adding with a powerful shout "But we are not fallen yet! The ritual completes today. If we cannot hold the keep, we will hold the stairs; if not the stairs, the hallway; if not the hallway then the ritual room. I will promise you all that even should the strength of each of us fail...our clan will survive. Even if it be a hundred years from now, those of us that still stand after today will see our clan restored...and our cold vengeance upon the countless tiny insects that had the misplaced arrogance to call true dragons their enemy!"

A mighty growling cheer erupted from within the room as the dragons within charged to meet their fate. As Dalatrix moved to join them, she placed the small orb on the table next to several others with a wistful sigh.

Then thundering into the hallway without another moment of hesitation, Dalatrix and her group of the remaining twenty dragons of the Skyrender clan met the first of the nearly ten thousand soldiers of the Lords' assault force.

-
-Small roadside building within the vast desert-

Parisa, the fairy in charge of what was part of the slapdash operation to return parcel delivery to the war-ravaged desert, flitted to and fro above the desk that bore her name as she looked down to her newest employee. "You're Narayani, right? This report says you're...some kind of Siren?"

Gritting her teeth and biting back on what she really wanted to say, Narayani took a deep breath before answering, "With all due respect, I'm one of the authorities on every raga used across the desert and elsewhere since antiquity, not to mention I've also composed four operas along with hundreds of other songs that are also well known across the region. So please don't compare me to one of those screeching feather-brained creatures."

Landing on her oversized desk to scan through the parchment she'd been given, Parisa glanced up a few moments later with a confused look. "This doesn't say anything about all that. If you're such an amazing composer, why did you take a job here?"

A slight flush coming to her smooth dark skin, Narayani replied, "Right...well, the new laws have put unrealistic expectations on mamono with more artistic trades. We're expected to simply produce art on demand just to meet their ridiculous quotas. It's ludicrous!"

Nodding along as the attractive harpy continued to complain about the new laws, Parisa pounced on the first moment to speak again. "Oh, that does sound terrible! They didn't take into account anything you've written before? And how many songs were they telling you to write to be considered officially working in that field?"

Looking away as she nervously answered, Narayani sheepishly replied, "W-well...allowances have been made for anyone that has made some sort of contribution to their field within the last decade. But we were only given a year to produce something new!"

Crossing her arms with a look of confusion, Parisa began moving to unleash a fistful of Socratic irony. "An entire opera in a year? You're absolutely right...that is ridiculous!"

"Y-yes well, it wasn't that they needed to see a whole opera," Narayani replied, sweating more than even the desert heat would normally have demanded.

Her brow creasing, Parisa continued her assault, "Well even one whole song can take longer than that. Creative types just move at different paces. Even I know that!"

Now aware of what her new supervisor was doing and tired of the charade, Narayani jumped to her feet with a scowl. "I haven't written a single note in over ten years, okay!? It's the worst case of writer's block I've ever had and I couldn't even make something up to satisfy the government requirements!"

Not at all ready to let things go at that, Parisa countered in a well-acted exclamation of understanding, "Oh! Oh, so then you're just a delivery girl like the other girls working here?"

Narayani remained silent and looked to the floor where her talons had begun to scratch at the stone in embarrassment.

Clearing her throat, Parisa spoke up again. "All joking aside, I'd like you to remind me of your position here."

Swallowing her shame as she locked eyes with the tiny fairy that had become her supervisor, Narayani answered in a defeated tone, "I'm a delivery girl."

"Great!" Parisa suddenly exclaimed as though having just entered the conversation. "I do apologize for calling you a siren-the paperwork just says 'music harpy'. Sorry if that offended you. Also, don't let the job title get you down-this is an extremely important service. Anyway...I've got a doozy of a job for your first delivery."

Parisa then put her entire small body into pushing a package across the desk towards the gandharva, the otherwise featureless wrapping covered in protective and sealing runes and tied with strong twine.

"Well, I'm a pretty decent flier. Where am I taking this?" Narayani asked, suddenly a bit excited at the prospect of heading to another region of the desert within which she'd spent her entire life.

Parisa frowned a bit. "Didn't I say this was a doozy? Might not have translated...my ex-husband said a 'doozy' was some kind of fancy iron horse or something. Anyway! This actually needs to be delivered to a person and not an address."

"That shouldn't be much harder, I guess. There's an address for the recipient, right?" Narayani asked.

Parisa tapped the package gently. "Of course! It's a bit further than you're probably used to-the address is in Alnor."

"Alnor!? B-but I've never been out of the desert!" Narayani nearly shouted, her eyes pleading for another assignment.

Kicking the scroll on her desk a bit further open as she paced about on the parchment as though it were a large rug, Parisa gestured down at the rolled document beneath her feet. "Yeah, it says that right here, actually. That's why I picked you for this job. They assigned me to this post because I always pick the right person for the right task. This is the right task for you."

"W-wait...no...I'm-" Narayani tried to protest before a clap from the much smaller fairy silenced her.

Turning and gesturing to a knapsack in the corner, Parisa continued undeterred, "I've got to get back to work but I've already prepared all you should need for the trip-maps, a magic compass that always points towards Teremir, and enough coins to cover any reasonable expenses. The contractor paid a great deal upfront to make sure this gets to the right person, so don't come back until you put this package in their hands. If you get into trouble, just write! This job shouldn't take you more than a week with those nice wings but don't worry if it takes longer."

Clearly not in a position to refuse her first assignment, Narayani shook her head as she moved to gingerly stow the package so she could head out. Starting slightly as she looked at the intended recipient, she asked, "Is this...is this a man's name?"

Looking at it one last time to be sure, Parisa nodded. "I believe it is. Oh, and before you ask, any...ah, tips you receive are strictly yours to keep."

Well now! Things might just be looking up for Narayani.

With a smile and a wave of her wing, Narayani headed toward the door, whispering to herself, "Joseph Panna of Alnor, huh? This'll be duck soup!"

-

"Mira…" Miranda scolded, a practiced note of elder sisterness adding volumes to that one word.

Pulling her spectacles off completely, the nearly identical girl angrily shot back. "I almost died. You almost died. We don't owe him a damn thing!"

Miranda crossed her arms and frowned. "He saved my life, Mira."

Mira didn't budge. "He's completely hopeless, will lay down for anything stronger than a calm breeze, and yet somehow manages to still be an arrogant ass. Oh, and not to put too fine a point on this, but you were only in danger in the first place because someone linked you to that bastard!"

"No-you know quite well that he had no way of knowing he'd end up linked to Durand before making that choice, or that he'd care enough to treat our lives with the same weight as his own family!" Miranda countered with a determined certainty before adding with a coy grin, "though I suppose we'd both be family as well if you were planning to take that little game you played with him seriously…"

Unable to hide the color rising to her face, as much in rage as embarrassment, Mira stamped her foot and answered, "How dare you spy on me! I was-"

"Doing the exact same thing to me?" Miranda expertly countered before her sister could finish.

Mira shouted back. "I can't stand you sometimes!"

"So then we're doing this?" Miranda asked, her tone suggesting she already knew the answer.

Remaining silent for several moments in the grip of a relentless anger, Mira finally placed her spectacles back across the bridge of her nose before replying, "I'll help...but not because you're asking."

"Oh?" the older sister asked, sudden curiosity consuming her.

"Three reasons," Mira began, adding after taking a breath, "The first is that I fully intend to force him to make good on at least one of his promises. I really don't think I want to marry into that mess...but a daughter might not be so bad. I'm also bothered that Durand's spellguard managed to throw me out before I could at least recover that salamander's body..."

"And the third?"

Sighing heavily as a sense of true remorse fell across her demeanor, Mira answered, "It's only a matter of time before someone tells him or he figures it out on his own...but there had to be another person in Durand's ritual chamber." Mira held to silence for nearly a full minute before she continued, "Losing Hekate was the most painful thing I've ever had to live through...but if that part of my life had somehow been completely unmade...I just...don't think anyone deserves that."

Miranda answered with a long silence of her own before calmly saying, "If it had been anyone else making the decision, that could have been me or you. I doubt I'll ever understand why, but that fool would have thrown himself to oblivion before either of us. There is also a lot more at play here than any of us, including Durand, can see."

Appearing to change the subject, Mira said, "Get his family to handle things in Teremir; I know what he's going to do so I'll try to track down some...assistance. Hopefully that'll at least start us on the right track. I've got a few ideas..."

With a short vocal assent, Miranda closed by saying, "I doubt I need to even say it, but be very careful with anyone you approach. It's hard to say how many of them will hate Durand enough to work with him. I'll also contact that unhinged succubus and watch over him until he wakes up."

"I don't trust that demon. Someone has to have her tits in a vice to have gotten her working on Joseph's behalf." Mira then snorted in derision. "Oh, and watch over him? I bet. Make sure to at least replace the nutrients you suck out of him when he wakes up."

"If he wakes up," Miranda corrected.

With that, the pair of witches set about their respective tasks.

-
-A prison cell-

I'd been sitting on my ass in this cell for what felt like nearly two days without any sign that anyone even knew I was here. Without even a window to gauge the passage of time, however, I really had no idea how long I'd been out, let alone how long I'd been awake.

Over the many silent hours I spent staring at unfriendly walls, imagining that I could see constellations made from the tiny holes in the stone, my mind was given far too much leave to dread what would happen when this cell was finally opened.

Would I be hauled before a magistrate? Another executioner?

"No," I said aloud with a hint of derisive laughter, "The dead can't suffer like the living. Fate definitely wants my ass alive."

Startling me from whatever it was I'd been doing-something like moping but with all the angry excitement of waiting for a police officer to walk up to my window after having pulled me over-I heard footsteps from somewhere nearby.

I hadn't even had time to concoct a plausible lie to answer the "Do you know why I pulled you over?" question.

I stood and moved to the cell door, finding it inexplicably unlocked.

"Don't have to ask me twice," I thought to myself as I quickly opened the sturdy cell door and then sneaked my way into an almost instantly confusing mess of worked stone tunnels.

Quickly putting some distance between myself and the footsteps I'd heard, I stopped a moment to try to get my bearings and found it nearly impossible. Even though I passed dozens of rooms, nearly every one of them was completely empty. The halls themselves were little better with only the signs that they had recently been covered with various rugs and artwork, evidenced by the dust outlines where things had once been.

Coming into one particularly dark room, not illuminated by torches or the seemingly more common clinging fungus that made the stones themselves glow, I thought I felt the sensation of moving air.

With the sincere hope that moving air meant I was approaching a way out of these infuriating halls, I moved forward into the darkness with slow, cautious steps.

Those steps were not cautious enough, apparently, as I lightly kicked what must have been a length of chain. Badly overcompensating with my gait when the light metallic sound reverberated in my ears like church bells in the otherwise silent room, I took a leaping step forward into the darkness and immediately cracked my shin on something wooden and started falling forward.

I'd have rather bashed my face on stone than the far softer alternative I fell upon.

It was definitely a bed that broke part of my fall. On its own, I wouldn't have been concerned, but the decidedly feminine ass of which I'd just grabbed a handful and the resulting soft gasp urged me to quickly pull back to my feet.

As I got back to standing, I could hear the sleeper starting to stir as though from a light nap.. Within the near blackness of the room, I then saw a pair of glowing viridescent eyes slowly open...followed by a third...and then a much larger fourth.

"Oh, fuck no," I mentally screamed as I sprinted from the room as fast as I'd ever run in my life.

I was already rounding a corner at the end of the hallway outside the room before I heard the too-cheerful feminine voice call out, "Hey, come back!"

Perhaps in some fevered nightmare I might have imagined the bane of every D&D party in mamono form, but I never imagined the horror I'd experience if I actually saw one. Death, disintegration, charm, sleep, flesh to stone-even a single one of those would be the end of me, and it was impossible to know how similar a mamono version of such a creature might be.

I didn't even look back as I ran.

Perhaps it was divine intervention or just dumb luck that I found myself at a window to the outside only moments later as I dashed into a room that boldly presented itself as a kitchen, complete with a large cauldron hung over an open fire, shelves with a few sets of plates and silverware, and a well used preparation table with a stepping stool beside. It also had the window I'd been looking for.

The blue sky beyond the smallish window would have been more than enough to have me literally throwing myself outside, but the sight of the snowy mountain as it held a massive castle with a large wall of ice on its western face, still cracked and open to the elements, I didn't hesitate.

The biting cold was immediately relentless in making a very strong case for getting my ass back inside as fast or faster than I'd just gotten outside. Aside from the cold, I probably should have been just as concerned about being almost completely unable to catch my breath as well. Just how high up this mountain was I? Adding to that the fact that my armor made me stand out like a pigeon blood ruby sitting on a bed of salt, and going outside was suddenly not feeling like the best choice to have made.

Already shivering, I shook my head to throw back the doubts that had joined with my good sense as they screamed at me to climb back into the window. No...my family was in that castle and I could see the signs of a path to get me there.

Sure, if that beholder or eye-demon had wanted me dead, she would have probably had plenty of opportunities, but I was well past believing that death was the worst thing that could happen to me in this world.

I didn't waste any more time as I focused my energy on moving my feet toward my goal while doing everything I could to keep myself warm in the bone chilling bite of the frigid mountain air.

-
-Some time later-

"This was such a terrible idea," I muttered aloud, as I picked myself up from the snow after having fallen for the dozenth time and continued to push forward.

It could have been minutes, hours, or days since I'd set out from that kitchen window. I couldn't feel my fingers, my face, or my toes and it was getting harder and harder to keep moving. With the piercing light of the sun in the sky, amplified as it reflected off of the snow to leave me almost blind, I'd kept my eyes cast down upon the vague path markers on the ground beneath me.

I tried to imagine the angry shout Risa would give me when I put my cold hands on the bare skin of her back, or how warm Meryl's tail would be if I could just wrap myself up in it. I'd definitely have to warm my hands up before holding my girls, but just imagining the fragile softness of their small arms pulling in tightly against me was enough to keep my legs moving.

None of my family had been in the cells that had been near mine, and that must have meant they were still held by those crystal prisons within Durand's castle. My heart skipped a beat as I realized that, with Zee gone, there was nobody left that I could imagine had any real reason to help me. Even if someone had been willing, I knew I wouldn't be able to survive seeing someone else die for me.

It seemed far better to die, alone if needed, trying to recover my family than to get lost in the otherwise hollow lust of this world, stumbling or lost elsewhere without a single true friend or ally.

It was with that forlorn thought distracting me that my head suddenly hit something hard and metallic, my feet slipping out from under me yet again as I found my forward progress halted by a massive iron gate that defied reason with its sheer size.

Casting my gaze skyward, my eyes fell upon the castle that was my destination. As heartwarming as it might have been to claim that it was the love in my heart that warmed me enough to get me here, I think it was more likely the more arrogant desire to spit right into the face of death after what it continued to alternatively take or deny from me.

Seeing a massive ring, hung upon the gate like a knocker, I tried to grip it with my frostbitten hands and couldn't even move my fingers. Not deterred, I wrapped my arms through it and pulled with all the strength I could muster.

"You're wasting your time," a vaguely familiar voice called out from beside me, drawing my gaze to the dullahan I'd beheaded the first time I'd been here. "It would take a team of ogres to pull this gate open, and you have not been invited."

Ignoring her words, I continued to struggle to move the gate. What else could I do?

"Marshal Penelope. Durand gave us orders to-" another voice began from nearby before being cut off.

The dullahan cut in loudly, "I'm well aware of our orders and we'll worry about them if he gets the gate open." She then leaned down to whisper in my ear as she continued, "But we know that isn't going to happen is it? You know it took them three days to find my head after what you did? Even if I've been ordered not to kill you unless attacked, that doesn't mean I can't just watch you freeze to death."

There were two other voices arguing softly in the background. I looked up to see what looked like an ogre, completely covered in heavy winter attire, and another half naked mamono covered only with extremely fluffy white fur in a few places.

While the ogre looked at me with something that would have had a hard time passing as anything other than blatant hatred, the other girl looked at me with a far more sympathetic eye.

"Permission to speak freely, Marshal?" the fluffier woman asked as she met my gaze, clearly not at all bothered by the extreme cold.

"Granted," Penelope said as she leaned against the gate next to me with a disinterested smirk. "But you can't have this one."

"Go back down the mountain," she said to me, an obvious kindness in her voice. "This gate only opens with magic and we can't open it for you. You can't just let yourself die out here, can you?"

"No, he can't," another voice called out from behind me.

Penelope and the ogre drew their weapons, but the other girl just continued to hold my gaze to drive her statement further home.

"Stop!" the ogre shouted. "State your business."

"Just picking up a lost pet," the deep, nearly emotionless feminine voice answered, sounding a bit muffled as though coming through a scarf or concealing hood. "Let me take him and there won't be a guild incident."

Penelope kicked some snow in disappointment. "We won't stop you but you might want to keep these sorts of pets on a leash. They can get seriously hurt if they wander into the wrong neighbor's yard."

My rescuer didn't even answer that statement as she grabbed me with her very large arms and pulled me close to the warmth of the heavy coat she wore, wrapping a blanket around me. Her features were almost entirely covered by heavy clothing but I could make out a bit of blue skin before she covered my face with the blanket.

I wanted to struggle, to lash out at the woman I'd see nearly kill Zee, or to tear this massive gate from the great hinges that held it, but what could I really do? No amount of impotent rage was going to grant me the strength to move either the gate or its defenders.

Again, I felt the hollow pain of helplessness as it spread throughout me.

As I shivered, only half from the cold, the emotionless voice of the woman carrying me back down the mountain returned some measure of hope to me.

"Why would you attempt to come here alone, Joseph?" she asked. "We are worried as well."

"Worried?" I asked as I looked up toward her.

"Yes," the giant woman said simply as she began to take large, quick steps back down the mountain path. "Would you expect otherwise from family?"

For just a moment, in the light of the mountain, I saw the glint of a familiar green peeking out from beneath her heavy hood.

It had just been made blatantly obvious that I'd never be able to do this alone. Was this another Panna sister? Lareina had certainly shown herself to be fruitful, and she had to be concerned about the fate of her daughters, right?

Maybe I did have some allies left.