Author's note: Hey everyone. After this chapter, I probably won't be able to post for a few weeks. I leave for a two-week vacation to the States next Monday, and will most likely not have enough spare time to write. I hope everyone's having a great summer so far, though, and I'll see you in August!
The Folly of Desire
Daggers firmly in her hands, Rue charged the tall, feminine demon of desire, who smirked with delight as she drew near. Rue planted one foot forward and lunged with a horizontal slash of her blade, but it only whistled through the still night air as Desire evaporated into pink mist with an amused cackle. Rue stumbled forward in surprise, and barely had time to process what had happened before Cassandra's desperate voice called out.
"Behind you!"
Startled, she looked over her shoulder in time to see a slender, lavender arm with long, razor-like nails swat at her face. A well-timed roll forward into the snow saved her life; she felt the wind against her scalp as Desire narrowly missed her head. Rue tumbled through the powdery snow until she felt she had created enough distance, then sprang to her feet.
"It doesn't have to be this way, Rue," Desire said in a tone dripping with sweetness, swaying her hips softly from side to side in a delicate rhythm, her self-assured smirk spread on her full, violet lips. "I could simply admit defeat, and you could let me go. I would promise to never show my face to you or your Inquisition again. No one has to fight. No one has to bleed."
Rue shook her head sternly. "I won't allow you to do to someone else what you did to us. You die, demon!"
Desire's face contorted into an exaggerated expression of sorrow. "It's such a pity, Rue. I really didn't want to kill you."
Movement behind Desire caught Rue's attention. Sera had strung and readied her bow. With a satisfied grin, the city elf pulled an arrow back until its feathers reached her earlobe. Thinking quickly, Rue drew her eyes back to Desire, pretending not to have noticed. The ruse fell through, however, as Desire cast a sideways glance to where Rue had looked, and a smile tugged at the side of her mouth once more.
Rue's gut tightened when Sera loosed her arrow and the demon vanished again. The arrow whizzed through the rosy smoke, and Rue had to flatten herself to the ground to avoid being skewered.
"Oh, balls! Shit! Rue! You all right?" Sera cried frantically, unable to see the Inquisitor through the smoke.
"I'm fine!" she called back as she straightened up and brushed the snow from her tunic. She ran through the demon's obscuring cloud and regrouped with Sera and Cassandra.
The Seeker looked around wildly, her longsword and heater shield at the ready. "Why does it toy with us? Why doesn't it fight?"
Another cackle rang through the air all around them, as though it were an echo with no origin. Rue cast her glance around the empty clearing for any sign of Desire, seeing nothing but her two companions and the cloud of magenta that the demon had left behind. She focused on the lingering cloud and wondered why it hadn't yet dissipated. After a few seconds, she had her answer.
To Rue's alarm, she realized that the mist was spreading and reaching around them rapidly. Before she could scream to her companions to run, it had completely surrounded the three in a large ring.
"What now?" said Cassandra as she stared at the rosy ring of fog in disbelief. She bunched together with Rue and Sera, their backs to each other, the three of them trying to keep as far from the ring's edge as possible.
Sera was swearing wildly out of fear, inserting a barely coherent "What's goin' on?" after every other cluster of expletives. Her bow was drawn and aimed at the smoke, even though they were all fairly certain that firing into it would prove futile. Rue opened her mouth to comfort Sera when movement caught her eye within the thick, rosy mist.
The tall, horned silhouette of Desire loomed into view, but it wasn't alone; another demon appeared, identical to Desire; then another, and another. Seven indistinguishable copies surrounded Rue and her companions, all smiling that horrifying smile of amusement.
Cassandra brandished her sword threateningly. "We should have known a cowardly monster like you would resort to illusions!"
"Cowardly?" all seven demons said with feigned hurt. "I'm merely leveling the playing field, darling. Three against one was hardly fair, wouldn't you say?"
"Enough of this shite!" Sera yelled in a voice that quaked with both fear and anger, launching an arrow at the swaying lavender form in front of her. The arrow shot straight through the illusion, making the circle of Desires laugh. Before Sera could react, the copy then retaliated by forming a small sphere of light in its palm and throwing it at her with great speed. It slammed into her stomach and burst into sparks; Coughing and sputtering, Sera doubled over in pain. She dropped her bow and fell to her hands and knees.
"Sera!" Rue cried as she abandoned her post and ran to her friend's side, kneeling next to her with concern.
Cassandra growled in frustration and stared at the demons with utmost contempt. "So, we can't hurt the illusions, but they can certainly hurt us."
Helping Sera to sit upright, Rue noticed small holes in her long red tunic where the sparks from the sphere had singed her. Other than that, the attack seemed to have only knocked the wind out of her. "Can you stand?" Rue asked, holding her hand out to help Sera up. The city elf opened her mouth to answer, when—
"Look out!"
Cassandra's shout startled Rue, and she looked up in time to see Desire gliding quickly toward her, its slit pupils dilated in excitement like a cat about to catch its prey. It raised its clawed hand above its head before swinging down hard at the kneeling elves; in a desperate motion for survival, Rue threw up her red dagger, Paprika, in time to catch the demon's hand before it could impale them. Paprika's blade kept the claw at bay, but did no damage to Desire's skin. The demon giggled at Rue's struggle to keep herself and Sera alive before wrapping her long fingers around the blade and snapping it in half with little effort. Rue watched in horror as Paprika's upper half was carelessly tossed aside, leaving her with only an ornate hilt and a fraction of the red drakestone blade.
It was then that Cassandra's steel longsword came down upon the demon's horned head, slicing straight through its body like a hot knife through butter. With a gasp of shock, she vanished, leaving only six copies of Desire left, all of whom looked furious.
"I'll cut through each and every one of you to get to the real one, if I must!" Cassandra cried in defiance as Rue helped Sera to her feet.
"You should be so lucky," the six Desires retorted, scowling. "It's time to end this little game, my sweets."
Six arms extended out toward Rue and her companions, and bright, pale pink orbs formed in six upturned palms. These orbs were much larger than the one that had struck Sera—about the size of Rue's head—and a well-placed shot from even one of those could mean death. And there were six of them. Rue drew Pepper, her only other remaining dagger; Sera, still panting from the shot to the stomach, readied another arrow; Cassandra threw her shield out. They were completely surrounded, and they knew they couldn't defend against every shot, but what else could they do?
"You could have ended this at any time, Rue. Now, you and your friends—Agh!" A sudden ear-piercing shriek of pain came from Rue's left. One demon staggered forward, clutching her back, and the others rapidly evaporated into mist with a look of shock.
To Rue's complete surprise, Cole had returned and plunged a dagger into the real demon's back. She saw him lung forth for a second strike, but Desire caught his wrist and, in a fit of rage, hurled him over her head like he weighed nothing. He landed head first into the snow next to Rue and tumbled until he managed to throw his arms out and catch himself. He scrambled clumsily to his feet, disoriented, his hat lost somewhere in the snow.
"Are you all right, Cole?" Rue asked, looking back and forth between him and Desire.
"Y-yes," Cole panted, though Rue could see a sizeable trickle of blood run from under his pale blonde bangs down his left temple and cheek.
"I told you to get Alassiel out of here and someplace safe! What are you doing here?"
"She is safe," Cole answered, shaking his head to clear it. "Hidden away, sheltered in shadow, safe. But you're not. So I came back."
A powerful laugh then came from Desire, drawing everyone's attention. She seemed to have regained most of her composure, although she still had a hand to her back where Cole had stabbed her. "Oh, believe me, dears. That little brat is not safe. Once I've dealt with all of you, I will find her. I'll make her pay for ruining…everything."
Sera had enough. With blinding speed, she pulled an arrow from the quiver on her back, set it on her bow, and drew the string taught. "Payment, eh?" she muttered. "Here ya go." She loosed her arrow, and this time it connected with her target.
It dug deep into Desire's right shoulder, earning a hiss and a shrill cry of pain. Rue, Cassandra, and Cole took advantage of the distraction and charged. As they drew near, Desire tore the arrow out of her skin, broke it, and glared at the three with contempt. She now seemed to be too weakened to use any kind of teleportation magic.
Cassandra attacked head-on, bringing her longsword down in a vertical strike. Desire caught the blade in her hand before it could strike her, but this time, it cut her. Thick, deep black blood ran down the demon's arm, and she hissed as she struggled with Cassandra's strength. Sera ran to catch up to the group, ready to pepper the demon with arrows at point-blank range.
Cole darted around and behind Desire to flank her once more, and Rue hung back, staring at her left hand. She willed the power within her mark to manifest with a bright green flash, and was ready to tear open a breach in the Fade to send the demon back, once it was weakened.
Desire, however, let out another loud, furious screech. "ENOUGH!"
An intense blast of magenta energy emanated from her, knocking Cole backward into a nearby tree. Cassandra was launched into Sera, and the two hit the ground hard. Rue was blasted off her feet as well, hitting her head harshly on the snowy terrain.
Before she could summon the energy to sit up, Rue felt a strong hand grab both of her wrists and lift her straight off the ground and into the air. She was then face-to-face with Desire, the demon's visage one of hurt and scrutiny. Rue's head was pounding from the hard contact with the ground, and her vision doubled. She could feel the blood from Desire's cut hand seeping into the sleeves of her light brown tunic, and the wet, warm feeling sickened her. She tried weakly to wriggle out of the demon's grip, but her efforts were futile.
After what felt like an eternity of helplessly dangling there, staring into the violet eyes of Desire, Rue watched her lean in and kiss her forehead tenderly. She thrashed around more violently at this affront, kicking and flailing, though ultimately hitting nothing. The gall of this thing to pretend that it could share a shred of intimacy with her!
It was then that Desire waved the clawed fingers of her other hand in front of Rue's face, a soft smile reappearing on her lips. The long nails of her hand traced Rue's body from her cheek to her chin, gliding down her throat, her collar bone, and past her breasts, stopping at her stomach. Rue then felt a painful pressure as Desire dug her nails into her abdomen. The demon bared its teeth with glee as Rue cried out in pain.
Just when she felt that Desire's claws would pierce her completely, a meek voice called out from a distance.
"Stop it…"
Rue barely heard it at first, but it grew louder and more desperate, and soon neither she nor Desire could ignore it.
"Stop it…Stop it. Stop it!"
The voice echoed from across the clearing, and both Rue and Desire looked to see its source. A small figure, barely visible in the moonlight, painstakingly pulled itself out from the forest's tree line through the snow. Thin, dainty fingers dug into the cold, white powder to pull a cut and battered body along the ground. Alassiel, panting and coughing, had dragged herself back from wherever Cole had hidden her. She then ceased her crawling, gathered all of her breath, and screamed at the top of her lungs, "STOP IT!"
Rue gasped in shock at the sight of her cousin's tattered form. Desire, captivated by the object of her hate, dropped the Inquisitor immediately and stormed toward Alassiel. The young elf, having caught the demon's attention, continued to cry.
"Look at yourself! Look at what you're doing! This is wrong! All wrong!" Alassiel sobbed loudly as Desire drew nearer. "You were my friend! I trusted you! And now…what have you done!"
Desire reached down and grabbed Alassiel harshly by her matted blonde hair. She yanked the weak elf upright and stared down at her with contempt. "If things have gone all wrong, it's your fault, you little bitch!" Desire wrapped her other hand around Alassiel's throat and lifted her off of her feet. She hung helplessly in the demon's grasp, coughing, gasping, and gagging as the fingers around her throat tightened.
Rue, her vision refocusing and strength returning, groped around frantically on the snowy ground for Pepper. Her heart jolted when her fingers brushed against a cold, steel hilt, and she took her onyx dagger into her hand. She staggered to her feet and glanced at her companions, all of whom had been knocked unconscious. Anger swelled within her, replacing her dizziness and disorientation.
"You ruined everything!" the demon snarled at Alassiel, whose struggling was growing weaker in her hand. "You, and that thing! I'll tear him into a thousand pieces when I'm done with you!" Desire was consumed with hate. The rest of the world seemed to melt away as she choked the life out of her former host.
This was her undoing.
Fueled by her own rage, Rue charged Desire from behind at top speed, her feet making no noise in the crisp mountain snow. She leapt into the air and plunged Pepper deep into the base of Desire's neck, using gravity to rip down the demon's spine until her boots touched the ground.
Desire couldn't even cry out, only gasp loudly in agony. Her grip on Alassiel's throat loosened and the elf dropped to the ground, coughing meekly. The demon also crumpled into the snow, dark, thick blood staining the white snow beneath her; her bare, lavender body paralyzed from the damage done to her spine. She stared wildly up at Rue, who snapped the fingers of her left hand and opened a bright green breach in the sky.
Rue watched coldly as Desire slowly dissolved into the Fade, closing her fist and slamming the rift shut once every bit of her was gone. She stood still in the silent clearing for a moment, the only person still conscious after the nightmarish ordeal. Once the realization that it was all over truly hit her, she sheathed Pepper and scooped Alassiel off the ground, putting two fingers to her throat once more. Her pulse was even weaker than it had been, but it was there. Rue let out a heavy sigh of relief, and as she did so, she heard a groan behind her.
Seeker Cassandra sat up and looked around in bemusement, rubbing her right temple. When she spotted Rue with Alassiel in her arms, she slowly stood, staggering slightly. "What happened?" she asked hoarsely, realizing the forest clearing was completely still. "Is the demon…?"
"Back in the Fade," said Rue with a grim smile. "I think everything's going to be okay. Let's try to wake the others and head back home. I think we all could use a nap."
