A/N: Sorry for the delay folks, kinda going through a crisis. Sorry I haven't been able to reply to each and every review, but I fully intend on keeping up with that from here on out, and trust me I read and treasure each one. Super congrats to candyflavordlies for being the first to figure out that the fic title is a song by A Fine Frenzy. In fact every chapter is the title of a song that I found motivating for the chapter. If anyone is interested, I'll post a songlist at some point. This is a short chapter, but be prepared, this is the last chapter before the second arc, action ahoy! xoxo
After another night of next to no sleep, DG was bordering on crazy, teetering towards completely batty. She had spent the majority of the night camped out on a battered armchair a guard had quietly brought out for her, tangled in a plush blanket, drinking coffee and watching the new and improved mountains of the Kells on one of the balconies in the west wing of the Palace. Cain was her ever present shadow, lacking on sleep himself, but refusing to leave her to this folly on her own, he stood guard, occasionally excusing himself to grab another pot of coffee for them. She had pilfered Ahamo's reworked telescope, imbued with a little magic for far-seeing, and watched as dozens of tiny specks that were probably people, but possibly cattle, herded and trekked towards the new tower in the west. She and Cain had spoken little, but the feeling of dread crept between them like a palpable thing as they watched the pilgrimage. Several times through the night, DG had felt magic in the distance, stuff that made her stomach crawl and her skin itch. Each time, her own magic had responded in kind, flaring and making her into a human torch.
Now, at breakfast, DG was yanking at her dishevelled curls with one hand, spooning jam in abundance on the crusty bread she didn't plan on eating, and half-listening to Azkadellia as she talked about who the hell knew what. She was waiting for news that she knew was coming, dreading it even as she couldn't wait for it to come, for this dread and anxiety and waiting to be over. At her left, Cain was half dozing in his oatmeal, blinking sleepily at the designs she traced with her jam-covered spoon on her napkin. She wondered how long they could keep this up, her waiting for the hammer to fall and him waiting for her.
Other than Cain, it was family in attendance, as well as Glitch and Raw. Raw was tucking heartily into his giant turquoise-coloured boiled egg, that came from some creature DG wasn't sure she wanted to know existed. He had a slab of ham the size of his fist and just as thick half eaten, and he was making little purring noises of appreciation in the back of his throat as he happily ate. Glitch was picking at a muffin, in one of his strange, quiet modes where his face was oddly blank. It had been happening more and more of late as the brain room doctors worked to fuse the halves of his brain together. DG thought he looked like a computer screen in sleep mode. It made her sad to know her friend was so separated that he didn't know which half of himself he was on any given day, and she thought maybe, just maybe, she could appreciate his confusion.
Cain finally seemed to notice that she was more playing with her food than consuming it and he gave her a nudge with his elbow, and gave her a meaningful glare. "Stop playin' with it, and eat. It's like I'm watchin' a child. Again."
DG glared right on back at him and set down her jam covered spoon. "I'm not hungry. Don't call me a child."
Gesturing to her artwork, Cain cleared his throat. "I call 'em like I see 'em, kid."
"Stop calling me that!" DG shouted, drawing the attention of the table crowd, which was only further exacerbated when all the silverware on the table clattered and rose to hover several feet in the air. Her jam covered spoon rotated and dripped grotesque pulpy crimson just in front of her forehead. DG felt a sudden roll of queasiness and then with a sharp pain that radiated from inside her head, her nose spouted blood and she stared as it dribbled off her chin and onto her plate, ruining the mess anyways, and felt both surprised and mortified. Her head thumped painfully in time to her heartbeat, and fresh blood fountained from her nose. There were audible gasps from the group and someone made a faint choking noise as they tried to inhale around their half-eaten toast.
"DG, you can put the silverware down now," her mother intoned dryly, gesturing to her butter knife rotating slowly in the air before her.
"I don't think I can," DG muttered, trying to find her napkin to soak up the blood from her nose as Cain grabbed her wrist and tried to assess the damage while she batted him away.
It was perfect that Jeb chose that moment to burst in, angrily threatening to rearrange body parts in anatomically impossible ways at the guard who trailed him for making him wait so long and DG's heart flip flopped in her chest. Ignoring Cain's protest, she slid back her chair and stood, fisting her cloth napkin to her nose and tilting her chin up. She could handle this, she could.
Jeb had been put in charge of the intelligence in regards to the Kells, because he and his squad had a way of getting information from the people of the O.Z. that no tin man could. She just hadn't expected him to come bearing the news so quickly. Jeb took off his slanted cap as he reached the table, ran a hand through his wayward hair, bowed to the Queen and her Consort, to Az and herself and gave his father a nod. He took in the scene before him with raised brows.
"Did I come at a bad time?" He asked, looking up at the floating silverware and at DG's bloody napkin.
DG actually smiled at this, glad for once that there were no hushed words, no strange looks, just words among friends. She had always liked Cain's son, he had his father's practicality and ability to take new things in stride. "No," DG said dryly. "Jeb, the Kells. Tell me you found something out."
"Didn't even have to look for it, the information came right to me in the form of one of my own men. He said he had to go, had to leave for the Great Kells, to the tower, right away," Jeb told them with a scowl, twisting his cap in his hands. "He said he got a call, inside of him, and it awoke something he never knew he had in him."
DG frowned and tried to make sense of this information. "He got a call? Like, E.T. phone home? What does that even mean?"
Jeb blinked at her turn of phrase and shrugged. "I'm not sure, but he's not the only one. All over the O.Z., men and women are waking up and deciding to pack up their lives to travel to the Kells. By the thousands, if what I've heard isn't exaggerated."
Cain took a long sip of his coffee, his face so tight his jaw cracked as he swallowed, and grimaced. "So he's buildin' an army, then."
DG looked at him aghast, and Lavender and Azkadellia gasped in sync. At that moment, the silverware began to spin erratically, and jam flung off in droplets from DG's spoon, landing everywhere.
Raw looked at the glob that landed on his arm and made an aggrieved noise. "Jam so hard to get out of fur."
"No, he can't be. He's planning a war?" DG asked frantically, ignoring the Viewer.
"He did say he'd do anythin' to get you back, didn't he?" Cain told her pointedly, raising a brow and looking serious as a heart attack. "Maybe he's thinkin' he needs somethin' big to get your attention. I can't think of anythin' bigger than a war."
Suddenly losing the feeling in her legs as her power rose with such force that it crackled and made the teacups on the table do a merry jig across the tablecloth, DG sat with a thump. "No, no, no. This is bad."
"Doll, this isn't your fault," Glitch chimed in, shifting back, like the rest, from the bright flare of her power. "He's acting like a small child because he hasn't gotten what he wants, and he's throwing a temper tantrum on a grand scale, but that's not your fault."
Another tremor, another pulse of magic, and suddenly DG's head was full of terrible pressure and her nose erupted anew, blood flowing freely down her chin. Embarrassed and mortified at her lack of control, DG hid her face as her mind worked frantically. War? Here? DG couldn't stand to see her home, her real home, wrecked by the ravages of a long and bloody war, especially one she could prevent. She made a distraught noise and reached without looking for Cain's hand, which she found halfway as he reached out for hers simultaneously.
"No, kid," he warned, apparently seeing the direction her mind was taking.
"I have to, Cain. I can't sit by and let him do this to the O.Z." DG murmured into her napkin, trying to sop up the mess and control the pounding in her head at the same time.
"What does my daughter have to do?" Ahamo questioned thickly. "What does she think is her duty this time?"
DG lifted her head to make eye contact with her father and snuffled pathetically. "I have to stop this war before it starts, I have to go to the Dark."
"No! You've done enough, DG! You've already saved the O.Z. once, no one expects you to have to do it again," Azkadellia chimed in, fisting her small hands in her skirts and looking mournful and determined.
"I'm the only one who can! He wants me, only me. Then he'll stop," DG told her, feeling her heart wrench in her chest and catching Cain's pained look and the fingers that went to his own chest. She gripped his hand tighter.
Jeb was watching this interchange with a frown and he finally spoke up. "I don't think it's wise for the Heir Apparent to go traipsing off across the O.Z. to go to a god who seems at least halfways crazy."
"Thank you, son. How can you think we would let you do this, kid? You are the next in line to the throne, you must be protected at all costs," Cain told her fiercely, tugging her hand until she looked him in the eye. "Do you think the Dark will just let you go after a visit? I'm thinkin' he plays for keeps, here."
DG threw up her hands, frustrated by the attack from all sides. "Then I abdicate, or whatever! Az will have to be the Heir. I won't just sit here and let the Dark tear this kingdom apart when I can stop it!"
"DG, my darling, no. We have our own army, we'll play his game, but we won't let you go to him," Lavender told her with a firm head shake. "No one takes my daughter from me."
Ahamo wrapped his arm around his wife and gave a nod of agreement, looking at her with determined eyes. DG looked around the table and found that everyone had that same, unified look, that look that said they would fight a long, bloody battle before they'd let her go. Tears sprang to her eyes, unbidden, and DG swallowed around the sudden lump in her throat. This was her family, these were her friends, and they were telling her without words that they would lay down their lives for her. And the sad truth was, unless DG acted, it would come to that. And she could never allow that.
"It's not your choice to make. You'll have to chain me in the dungeons before I let some dude ruin my home, hurt my friends. These are my people, you've pounded that into my head since day one. My first duty is to the people, and I can't just turn my head away and pretend that duty doesn't exist now," DG explained hoarsely, trying not to cry and make a fool of herself. Or more of a fool, whatever. "I'm going, I have to."
"Then DG not go alone," Raw growled, thumping his fist down on the table and half rising from his seat.
"You can send a battalion of men with her," Jeb pointed out thoughtfully. "At least a dozen."
"Like hell!" Cain objected loudly. "You won't send any men because she isn't going!"
"We'll come with you, dollface, it'll be just like old times," Glitch told her with a crooked smile. "I kinda miss the old campfires and sing-a-longs."
"Sing-a-longs?" Raw inquired, momentarily distracted from his bristling determination.
DG shook her head wildly and pounded the table with an open palm to hush her friends. "No, no, no. No one is coming with me. I do this alone."
"Over my dead, cold body, kid," Cain told her shortly.
"DG, we can't let you do this alone, even if we let you go!" Azkadellia cried, her eyes glossy with tears, her fists white-knuckled with strain in her skirts.
"Yes, you can," she told them quietly. "I'm not going to war, I'm going to a god. A god who is insanely jealous, and isn't really a 'people person'. He wants me, me alone."
"Oh my darling, how can you expect us to stay behind and let you go off to this great unknown. It would be like losing you a second time," Lavender said hoarsely, leaning into Ahamo's embrace for support.
"And it ain't gonna happen!" Cain roared, making everyone at the table flinch. "You made me your champion, am I right? Well I don't know much, but I do know that means I stick with you."
DG looked at him, her heart pounding wildly, and saw the look she was well-acquainted with from her time with Cain. His mind was made up, and there was no going back. She swallowed thickly and looked down at where their hands were still entangled, and she felt the heaviest of weights descend upon her. This was Cain, he was the man who had fought beside her, berated her, held her close, confided in her, infuriated her, and who was ultimately her greatest friend and ally. She truly wanted him at her side, but the thought of harm coming to him made her literally want to shatter. He was the strongest man she'd ever known, but compared to a god, he was as fragile as glass. Before she could make up her mind, however, Cain gripped her chin and took the cloth napkin from her hand to wipe the blood off her face. He looked her dead in the eye.
"You made your decision? Fine, here's mine: I go wherever you go. Period."
Heart sinking, DG realized there was no way to leave Cain behind. But maybe she could protect him. She gave the barest of nods and dropped her head.
"Good, I'm glad you see it my way. First thing though, let Raw take care of this," he gestured at her still trickling nose, and the reminder made her head pound.
Raw nodded and stood up, making his way through the sudden silence to her side of the table. Once there he gripped the sides of her face and touched his thumbs to bridge of her nose. He let his feral eyes drift closed and there was a sudden wrench in her head and then the pain was gone. Instead of letting go, though, Raw let his hands drift down her face and onto her shoulders, where he gripped her tightly. He frowned and his eyelids fluttered. DG raised her hands to cover Raw's and watched his face as the Viewer delved inside of her, using his gift. When his eyes finally opened, Raw looked deeply troubled, which made DG's stomach flip flop uncomfortably.
"I'm not pregnant, am I?" She joked weakly, not noticing that she nearly gave Ahamo a coronary at the head of the table. Her mother coughed and Azkadellia sighed at her poor taste.
"No. DG's organs weak. Too much magic, makes DG's body sick." Raw informed her hesitantly.
"Another reason she shouldn't go!" Azkadellia said, leaning forward worriedly to study DG.
"No, another reason I should go. He said this would happen. I can't handle my power in a human body without him," DG explained with trepidation, swallowing the sick feeling rising in her gut.
Cain swore and turned away from them all suddenly. "When do we leave then?" He muttered blackly.
"As soon as possible. Tomorrow, even." DG said hesitantly, gripping Raw's hands where he still held on to her as if for strength. She knew the reaction this would garner her.
"Tomorrow?"
"That's too soon!"
"You need to prepare, you can't do this all willy nilly, doll!"
DG felt a burst of frustration and the silverware clattered threateningly, but did not repeat their earlier performance. "There's no preparing for this! I just want to get it over with before any more damage is done!"
Her slight show of power silenced the protests and DG glanced down at her lap where she had locked her hands together and was squeezing so hard her fingers had gone white. "Tomorrow," she repeated.
