Author's Notes: So being sick is…incredibly unpleasant, especially when you catch the flu and then the stomach bug in rapid succession. I'm still high off my ass on pain meds and cold meds, so this probably isn't the best editing job I've ever done on a chapter, but it is what it is.
Warnings for mentioned rape, gore, Daemon…unpleasantness, Enel is a monster of the first order, etc.
Chapter Twenty-Nine:
The Fire of Shandia
Su was warm and trusting, tucked inside her jacket, but Kelly kept one hand cupped underneath the fox just in case, to make sure that she didn't fall out as the Magus streaked through the trees.
If what she remembered was true, the Merry Go would dock at the…Sacrifice Altar, or something? Chopper would have a fight against someone that he couldn't win against, and he would call Gan Fall with the whistle.
But all of the Straw Hats were there and present, so she doubted just Chopper would be left to deal with whatever threats came their way, and Gan Fall would also fail…right? Would Gan Fall even be there?
Fucking hell, she had to write down everything she still remembered about the series the moment she got a chance to do so. She was forgetting stuff, important stuff, and that could easily cost her, her life.
Even though things had changed, keeping track of the basis from which they had changed could only be to her benefit.
Shere and Gin felt restless, prowling in the back of her head, as they monitored the jungle around the river. They told her of few – if any - animals lingering in the river and woods, even the mutated ones favored by the Daemons. She opened her connection to them further, allowing them to draw more of her own magic into their bodies. It both soothed them and comforted her, as they would have plenty of protection for themselves in case any Daemons or Thralls did come along.
With them, the Straw Hats would be safe enough while she went to get answers. Nami wasn't near strong enough for Daemons to hunt, and none of the others were Magi.
As Kelly was the strongest Magi on the ship, it was probably safest for the pirates to have Kelly elsewhere.
And with the spells she had long since woven into the fabric of the ship would protect it from fire damage, so Chopper (or whoever stayed on the ship) wouldn't have to deal with that particular annoyance.
She shook off the niggling fears in her head, and concentrated on getting to the Shandian encampment.
If things were as they happened, maybe she would be fortunate enough to get to the tribe's home after Wiper had left, going on the attack of Enel's Shrine.
But what of the Daemons? Surely they wouldn't be distracted? And surely the warriors knew well enough to leave be if Daemons were out and about…
Kelly grimaced as she remembered Conis's letter, speaking of her fear of any rash action that Wiper may take in his restlessness. She knew many things had changed as a result of Magi and Daemons being, well, a thing, but she doubted very much that Wiper himself had changed.
He'd always been a prideful bastard.
Kelly burst through the trees, landing soundlessly on the sea. The feeling of the clouds below her gave her an idea, and she stopped.
Then she cackled.
Why not?
She channeled magic in a slow, steady stream to her feet, sweat dribbling down her face from the effort. Then, very cautiously, she began to move her feet in broad, open strokes, like she was skating across an ice rink.
Then she herself was moving, zooming across the cloud-sea with ease.
Kelly laughed and laughed and laughed, barely able to keep her balance as she did. It was for some time she traveled, Su's presence tucked against her chest.
"Ah!" Then the fox poked her head out of Kelly's jacket, nearly overbalancing her.
"Shit, fuck, god damn it Su," Kelly cursed, her arms flapping frantically before she caught herself and kept going. "What is it?"
"My home!" she chirped, and Kelly looked up.
Her first impression of the Shandian encampment was one of age. It should be impossible, that a bunch of tipis and cloth homes set on the cloud-sea could ever give across the impression of age and oldness, but it did. She could see, in the distance, an immense vine that twisted far up into the sky, and vaguely remembered it as the one Luffy would use to get at Enel, during their fight.
Might use would be more accurate. She didn't know if Luffy would even fight Enel now.
I'll find Erin, and I'll get back to the Straw Hats, Kelly told herself. And then we're getting the fuck out of Skypiea, back to the Blue Sea. I don't care what I have to do in order to ensure that. We'll be safer there.
A tiny voice wondered what would happen to Conis and the Shandians if they did that, but Kelly thrust that voice aside.
As she came closer, she could see five immense pillars sprouting at the outside of the camp. She could feel the magic that danced from them, welcoming her even as they warned all foes who might have tried to get past that their death would not be kind.
No, they weren't mere pillars, but totems, she realized, drawing nearer to them.
They weren't like the totems she remembered from school, from the childhood stories her great-grandmother told her and Amb-Nee-chan when they were both children. These had far different animals, including one that resembled the South Bird they had brought from the Blue Sea.
Kelly stopped right before the barrier the totems made around the camp. Something told her to wait.
She could have easily brushed past the barrier, easily done so – her Magic was far stronger, far deeper and far brighter than the seals writ onto the totems. But she did not.
To do so, something whispered inside her - something that sounded as Nephele had when they had spoken at her altar – would be sacrilege and insult of the highest order.
So she waited, and was soon rewarded by the sight of a young Shandian woman, approaching from the near-silent camp.
The woman was a head and half shorter than Kelly, her eyes bright and clear, her blonde hair pulled back and braided in the same manner as Kelly remembered Wiper's being. She wore practical clothes – an undyed tunic and breeches, woven with magic symbols – and her chin was a proud arch.
And her wings…
They were white, curling at her shoulder, flecked with brown like a falcon's.
She was so strange, so incredibly different from the girl Kelly had known from canon that the Magus couldn't help but marvel at it. Kelly thought back to the words Conis had written in the letter tucked against Kelly's chest beside Su, and realized that she should have expected it.
A Conis without her father or mother, a Conis who had fled the wrath of Enel, a Conis who had lived for almost ten years among the people of Shandia, a Conis who was a Magus, and a Magus of some power-
There was no way this Conis could have ever been like the one she had known of.
But then she caught sight of the faint trembling in Conis's clenched hands, and the almost-glassy look to her eyes, and something in her softened. There was still something of the soft, angel-like girl who had put her life on the line to warn Luffy, Sanji, and Usopp of Enel's trap.
The words came to her mouth without prompting, as did the bow.
She crossed her arms over her heart, the bow one Magus makes to another on that Magus's land, and she spoke with quiet confidence.
"My greetings, bahan dil," Kelly said.
When she raised her head again, the tension in Conis's proud shoulders had drained away.
The Snake was enormous.
It was strange, to have such a creature-
No, that was ill of her, to think so of someone who had come for no other reason than loyalty.
It was strange to have such a tall man at her side as this Ciel Russo was.
Stranger still to have a Magus of such power that the air around him warped to touch him. She wondered, her hand tucked into the crook of his arm like some noble lady from a story, if he even realized it.
It made her feel content and safe in a way she had not realized she missed since her mother had died. His magic was a potent thing, living and real, and the totems shone all the brighter when they walked past them.
If Conis did not feel so relieved by his presence, she might have felt jealous. Here was a proper Magus, here was someone who would have been a proper protector for her-Wiper's peoples.
"How did she die?" There was something so quiet in her companion's voice, something anguished, and she was reminded of how Ciel had first looked, when he had come searching for his Erin.
Kamakiri and Laki would have been less than pleased by the intimacy in his speech, but Conis did not care.
The words failed her as she tried to find them, and Conis did not look at him.
Ciel's voice was ragged in his grief. "Was it quick, at least?"
She looked at the ground, and felt the immense muscles in her brother Magus's arm tense, though his grip on her hand remained carefully gentle. And she remembered-
…"RUN!"
Erin's scream is a high-pitched sound of absolute and unflinching terror, and Conis drops the herbs she had been gathering from the small garden on their hidden section of the precious Vearth.
There is a sound like baying hounds, and Conis's heart stops in her chest.
No, this shouldn't be. The Daemons only hunted in this area in the darkest of nights, not in broad daylight, with the sun right overhead-
Erin's hand scrabbles at her arm, grasping it in an iron grip, while Conis grabs for the bag of herbs they had gathered. Herbs that would keep their people in medicine for years to come.
They run together, just as the first screech reaches Conis's ears. Beasts burst from the woods, commanded by ranks of the huntsmasters. They exude a wave of fear-stench before them, and Conis's amulets – the ones designed to protect her from just this – shatter instantly. There have never been so many out on a hunt.
Erin's hand is what keeps her sane, keeps her from dropping to her knees with the instinctual prey-terror. Erin's hand is warm and strong, and Conis knows that before she came to the tribe, she had been hunted for years.
They burst through the trees, and their skates whirl into brightness. They fly across the cloud-sea desperately, Su at her heels, Jyana flying alongside her Mistress. Were the fear any less, they could have taken to the skies, but Erin's wing is sore from the sprain she suffered earlier, and Conis knows she does not have the peace of mind needed to fly.
Jyana shrieks, and they can hear movement at the encampment.
If they can get past the wards, bring them to full life, they will be safe. They can do it together so easily, Erin being so strong, and both of them children of Air, they can do it-
Another screech, multiplied times a thousand, and Conis looks back against her own will.
Oh, gods-
Close to a hundred beasts, twisted and warped into only the slightest approximation of hunting dogs, are barreling towards them. Behind them are close to a dozen hulking humanoids, who keep close pace with their slavering mutts.
One of them, a great titan with flayed lips and straggly hair, shrieks when he sees them, a sound taken up by his companions and echoed eerily by the mutts.
Shouts ahead, and Conis turns her head back to the barrier before them. She can see the vague shapes of her tribe waiting them, calling out encouragement and fearful shouts of worry.
Then she-
She drops her bag.
The herbs they spent so long trying to cultivate, the herbs that would help Naabhak breath right again, the ones that would calm Chaaya during her fits, that would help new mothers and young children-
Conis yanks out of Erin's grip, and grabs for it.
"Mierda, Conis, no-"
Erin's hand reattaches to her arm, and then she's being dragged along, while she tries to keep one hand on the precious herbs.
They're only meters away from the wards, which have blazed into full light at the sensing of the Daemons so near. Shandia's people – warriors and normal folk alike – gather at the ethereal barrier, their faces a study of emotions from shock to despairing terror. Even the warriors are not unaffected.
Wiper is there as well, his hands fisted on the dome of the barrier, and his eyes are on hers.
He cannot get through the barrier – none save a Magi can. But she focuses on him, focuses and reaches out-
Erin halts so suddenly that Conis is thrown forward, crashing into the ground. There's a gagging sound, and the smell of blood is bitter on the air.
Conis turns while still on the ground, turns and-
Erin's golden-brown face is bloodless, and her hands are reaching with disbelief to the-
"No, no, no, no nononononononononono-" Conis staggers up as Erin collapses to her knees, the spear sticking out through her belly.
There are screams now, from the people inside the encampment.
Erin smiles a bloody smile as Conis flutters her hands over the bloody wound, trying to send her Magic out and not knowing where.
"R…run," her sister in magic, her sister in all but blood wheezes.
"No, I won't leave you, I refuse-"
The spear's head opens, and Erin screams. It's a hook like the ones the fishermen use to catch the sky-fish, with a rope attached to the end of the spear.
The arms of the spearhead pull back, and Conis dives around Erin's body. She calls winds, she calls fire, and she calls the gods to strike the metal attached to the end of the spear, the metal rope held by a monster, with Jyana diving down to strike with razor-sharp beak and claws at the same time.
She brings a hand of light down with a crash on the metal, but it does not even budge. Does not even tremble. She brings down another hand, then another, all while the stinking Daemons and their hunting dogs grow closer.
Erin reaches for her with bloody hands, and Conis takes them in her own. There's poison on the spear, Conis realizes it when she sees the black lines snaking up Erin's face. Poison that takes almost all of Erin's Magic to combat.
"Run," Erin pleads with her. "And tell…tell Kama and Laki…tell them I'm sorr-"
Erin clamps her hands on Conis's shoulders, gagging as she's pulled back, digging her feet into the soil.
Magic shudders out, and Erin hisses a spell of compulsion that snaps into place around Conis's shoulder like an iron vice. Jyana is still screaming, still pecking furiously as the spear and the metal.
"Tell them I lov-"
There's a snap, and Erin is yanked backwards, pulled screaming through the air.
Conis is screaming as well, screaming even as the compulsion pulls her off her knees and yanks her towards the barrier. She is still wailing even when the compulsion drops the moment she's behind the dome, countless hands reaching for her.
Conis remembers how her mother had looked, when she had gone outside of the barrier, to repair a fracturing totem during the raid years ago. She remembers the screams as the things ate her mother, and how Conis had been held down, prevented from going to her.
Now she is helpless again.
Conis whirls, and slams into the barrier, just as Erin disappears in the mob of monsters.
"NO!"
She beats her fists on the Magic that refuses to let her through until they are bloody and bruised. Her own magic smashes out against the barrier, a barrier that has stood for centuries, warping the air around her until she is alone in a circle of her own grief.
The Daemons leave.
And there is no sign of Erin or Jyana. The magic that so often twined with hers – it is gone.
Conis can barely see for the tears, but she does see the bag on the ground, with the herbs spilling from it. The herbs she traded for her sister's life. First her father, then her mother, now her sister.
Her knees give way, and someone is keening, an awful sound that aches of grieving.
It takes a long time before she realizes that the one making that noise is her…-
"No," Conis said, and Ciel made a moaning noise that was quickly stifled.
"Enel's doing?"
Conis breathed in deep, remembering the laugh that had echoed all over the island, the day after Erin had died.
"Yes," she said.
"What do you need me to do?" the jade-eyed Snakeman asked, his voice hard but cracking at the edges.
"What about the pirates you're traveling with?" Conis replied, remembering them suddenly, the weak pirates who had fallen so quickly before Wiper. "Won't they be rather annoyed?"
Pirates only cared for gold and wealth and whatever satisfied them, after all.
Ciel bit his lip, then shook his head. "No…No, they wouldn't. They'd understand quite well." The way he said that was rueful, almost amused.
"Come with me, I require maps to show you everything."
The Snakeman followed her closely, looming at her shoulder like a bodyguard as they passed through the near-silent camp.
"Where are your people?" he asked, looking around.
"Most are probably abed, or gathering food. The warriors are meeting now, probably to do something stupid."
"I thought the clouds weren't capable of bearing crops?"
Conis looked up at him. "How do you know that?"
It was true, after all. Magic did not thrive on the clouds and in the clouds like it did with the Vearth, and anything beyond small patches and gardens died in short measure. Her and her mother's ancestors, and the first Magus of the tribes, Aegle, had laid the foundation for that, and through many a raid had their people survived on the meagre gatherings from their gardens. But great crops, like the ones kept by mainlander families who had access to the Vearth, were not possible to maintain.
But how did this Blue Sea Dweller know of it?
He shrugged. "It was easy enough to find out. Magic does not hold here so like it does down below."
"You're right," Conis says, ducking under the flap of her tent.
"It holds in the water up here, though," Ciel said, sounding pleased and speculative.
Conis wondered then if Ciel had ever had anyone to speak so about Magic so frankly with.
She doubted he would have been able to do so with the pirates, who were all human. They were not like the Shandians, who revered Magi with as much wonder as Calgara had once done for his adopted daughter Aegle, who had protected the tribe for years and years before dying to save Calgara's son.
The Shandians owed their lives to Magi and to Magic, as the totems erected by Aegle centuries before had been protection when they'd lost their lands and then again when the Daemons had come. They revered Magic and those who could use it. She knew most humans – like the Skypieans and the Birkans who had come with Enel were, and surely the Blue Sea Dwellers too – were not like that.
And even the Shandians did not and could not understand Magic as Magi did. Conis had not had anyone so willing to discuss the intricacies of what Magic could do for some time, ever since Erin had…
…in any case, having someone with her who understood and enjoyed it felt quite wonderful.
"It's where we get most of our food," Conis said. "The water-ocean that connects a part to our camp hosts a lot of water-plants, and a great deal many fish. The totems Aegle constructed also keep the fish and plants free of the Daemons."
She offered Ciel a place before her small writing desk, a gift from her mother, but Ciel was staring at her strangely.
"Is there something wrong?" Conis asked, worried.
"Did you say Aegle?"
Conis blinked. "Yes? Is that a problem?"
"No, no, not at all," Ciel said, and he smiled.
The breath in Conis's lungs deserted her at the way it changed his face, made it soft and warm, and unbelievably handsome.
His eyes were a deep jade color, like the stones Mama had worn around her neck until the day she had died. His lips, even with the scar that cut almost from the bottom of his nose through the right side of his mouth to his jaw, were full and seemed all the warmer for the smile.
She wondered how she had never noticed the way his muscles strained against his jacket, how big his arms were folded against his chest, how his scales gleamed-
Conis looked away, blushing furiously. In all her years, she had never even thought of a man beyond Wiper in such a way. She barely even knew Ciel, beyond their bond of Magic.
Though there were many who would say that was more than enough.
"I was at the grave of Montblanc Norland and Nephele, before I came here," Ciel said, and what breath Conis had managed to regain promptly deserted her again.
She whirled. "You…their grave?" she asked, her heart in her throat.
Her ancestors.
Though Nephele was more her ancestor than Norland was, but that didn't matter. Her ancestor had been Nephele's loyal daughter, the woman who had died saving the Shandians. She had always longed to know more about what had become of them.
Wiper would give so much to hear this, she thought, and decided she would keep the words in her heart to tell him later.
Ciel reached into his jacket, and pulled out two fans.
"I was told to bring these to you, to bring these to Aegle's daughter. I think she was talking about you," Ciel said, handing them over.
Conis took them with shaking hands. They were magnificent things, the frame and the blades crafted from finely honed kairōseki, while the cloth stretched over the frame was something that looked like silk, but sang of deep magic and felt harder than steel.
"You, I, this is…" Words failed her as she stared down at the weapons Nephele had worn at her hip the day she had stepped foot on their lands centuries ago.
"Nephele told me you should have it," Ciel said.
"Montblanc Nephele is dead," Conis said, her voice tremulous. The weapons felt just a hair shy of made for her, fitting to her hands almost perfectly.
Ciel shrugged. "Yeah, but we're Magi, and she had business left in this world. I've heard of humans lingering to try and finish what they left behind, who says Magi can't as well?"
"She said…she said these are for me?"
To hold Nephele's own weapons in her hands…goddesses, was there any greater honor?
Even Wiper would acknowledge me, with these, she thought, and was immediately ashamed by her selfishness.
Ciel nodded. "Not in so many words, but I understand what she means now. You're Aegle's daughter, sure enough, and no one with a thought in their head could deny that."
Conis's mouth trembled, and her fellow Magus looked away, allowing her time to compose herself.
"So, bahan dil," Ciel said after a time, and when she looked back at him he grinned, showing all of his teeth. "How are we going to oust the Daemons from your lands?"
"I have maps, recent ones showing the lay of the land," Conis said, drawing the precious maps from her storage box near the desk. "They even hold the location of our encampment, though all others in the sky do not."
Ciel whistled and sat across from her. "Enel would kill to have these," he said, peering over the papers.
"He has," Conis said flatly, and Ciel winced.
"My apologies for my tactlessness. Go on?"
Conis rubbed her hands over the map. The drawn island was in the shape of a slightly crooked half-moon circle, with places marked out by drawings and careful words.
"We are currently located here, near the ocean," she said, pointing to the far left of the open half-moon. "The land of our ancestors, the Upper Yard as Skypieans now call it, it is to the north of here."
She pointed to a large space separated from the rest of the map by depictions of immense trees.
"Enel lives near the top of the Great Vine, in the east section of the Yard. The Daemons mostly live in the immediate east of that, they are free to roam wherever they wish through the entire island barring Gan Fall's home and our encampment. The mainlanders live mostly on Angel Island, but there are farms and more homes to the south. There are five pillars constructed by evil spells, they give the Daemons the power to combat us. They also keep the Daemons alive, even against the Magic inherent in the Upper Yard."
"They wander wherever they wish?" Ciel sounded horrified.
"Enel must keep them happy, after all."
"…are you telling me he has a Contract with them? And what type of Daemons are they? I nearly got killed because of that damn fear-pheromone they give out."
The smaller Magus raised an eyebrow. "Weren't you taught the spells of protection as a child? Even my mother knew to teach me those, and we had no tribe of Magi to learn from."
Ciel grimaced. "I didn't…ah, I didn't grow up with a tribe. My parents were human, and I…well, I didn't really have a lot of time to learn from Magi until several months ago, when I met a dragon-Magi, and I didn't even really have a lot of time to learn from her. My Familiar, Gin, taught me most of what I know, along with books and trial and error."
"…You're joking."
The Snake shrugged, blushing a little in embarrassment. "Spent close to a decade running for my life from Daemons after I…ah, after I took 'a wrong turn on the road of life', so to speak. Didn't really leave a lot of time for learning basic stuff, or even figuring out what that basic stuff was."
Conis kept her mouth shut on what she wanted to say, as she realized that but how in the name of the goddess have you survived this long without a tribe or a proper teacher probably would not go over very well. Even between Magi, there were lines in the sand, and Conis recognized that inquiring further into Ciel's past would be crossing a rather large one.
So instead, she slipped off one of the amulets wrapped around her neck and handed it over.
"I will teach you some more appropriate and long-lasting spells that you can use from now on, once we have decided what to do. They will also work well with those pirates you travel with. But for now, take this, and keep it with you at all times. It may not completely eradicate the fear-stench, but it alleviates it enough." Conis paused, and rubbed her hands together. "And if we succeed, I will take it upon myself to teach you the little tricks that my mother taught me."
Her fellow Magus looked at the flat, kairōseki pendant for a long, long time, before he slipped the silver necklace over his head, and tucked it inside his jacket.
"Ah, do you…do you know what type of D-Daemons they are? And does Enel have a Contract with them?" If Ciel's voice cracked a little, Conis wouldn't mention it.
"I know Daemons have a hierarchy among them, but I don't know specific names. They have their servants, the slightly higher-ranked ones than that, and then the Highborn, who are rarely seen, if at all. The huntsmasters have that fear-stench that can cripple us if we're not careful."
"And his Contract?"
"No, he doesn't quite have a Contract, from what I've learned. They listen to him too well, obey him too well than they would if he merely had a Contract with them. I've heard Gan Fall speak of his own suspicions and I have no reason not to agree with him."
"What does the Knight of the Sky think? And for that matter, Conis, why does he have Magi amulets?"
Conis blinked. "Oh, you noticed those? They were made by my mother."
"Your mother?"
"He prostrated himself before her, the day after the Lottery began. He begged for her to give him and Pierre some way of fighting back against the Daemons, and to maybe rescue any of the mainlanders who found themselves on the wrong end of a Daemon. He wanted a way to atone, and so Mama made sure he had it. In return, the two of them would act as our scout and spy. Mama saw no reason to risk any of our people more than we already had to do," Conis said, and Ciel sat back.
"That's…that's absolutely fucking fascinating, holy shit…wait, the Lottery? What's that?"
Conis sat back, and looked at her fellow Magus, feeling something of a gap spreading between them. It seemed almost alien that he didn't know, that he couldn't know of something that had been a part of her life for so long.
"The Lottery is how Enel keeps the 'peace', and keeps people from wanting to rebel. If the human-farms are not drawing an adequate number of food to feed the lower-ranked Daemons, then his Priests draw numbers and sacrifice that amount people from Angel Island to the Daemons. And everyone is required to watch," Conis said, her voice very calm.
The waters would turn red, and the screams of the doomed people would be heard for miles around. Even Wiper, who hated mainlanders, would light incense and say a prayer on those days.
"It is lucky for everyone that the human-farms are capable of feeding the rabble on most days, and the higher-ranked Daemons have their own food, though what it is I don't want to know."
Ciel looked as though he was in shock.
"As for what Gan Fall believes…He thinks Enel is descended from their Kings. He thinks Enel consumed the blood of his own mother after he was born, that he killed hundreds on his native island with others like himself, those Priests of his, that he brought a half dozen Magi bound by trickery to the Daemons, and was accepted among the Daemons for his cruelty. He thinks that is the reason why Enel is so strong in his Devil Fruit, why only pure kairōseki honed with magic can make him falter," Conis said quietly.
She believed the old man, after all. He had been vigilant in his protection of the Sky, and in his reports to her, despite Wiper's mistrust of him.
And after all, the only reason the other Magi of the sky would not have come to oust Enel and his Daemons would be if they…well. If they were dead.
The room was very quiet for several long minutes, before Ciel breathed slowly and looked up.
"A friend of mine taught me that Daemons and humans were…compatible. Enel – his mother was human, right?"
Conis nodded. "So I believe."
"She taught me that Daemons preferred to get children on Magi the most, as they have the most potential to become-to become corrupted. But they can get children on humans as well, she said, and that it was our duty as Magi if we ever found such a child born of a human, that we should kill it. For mercy, she said. Humans are not as capable of withstanding the lure of bad blood, she said. I told myself I would never do so. The faults of the sire are not the blame of the child," Ciel whispered.
Conis watched him, watched the scales on his throat as he swallowed hard.
"But I wonder to myself what I would have done, if I had known that some human carried the spawn that would unleash death among thousands, would enslave still more, and would willingly consort with those who raped his mother in his quest for power. I wonder what I would have done, if I looked upon the babe and knew he would one day have his monstrous kin hunt down and kill a girl I had loved."
Ciel let out a long, hateful laugh, before rubbing a hand down his face.
"Am I a monster, Conis? Am I a monster for wondering if I would have crushed the little bastard in between my hands, and felt nothing?"
Conis reached across the table, and took his hands in hers.
"You are not a monster," she said, smiling wryly. "Because I have dreamed of such things as well. Wiper would give anything to have that opportunity before his hands, and he is more human than Enel could ever be. Even Gan Fall has thought of it, though he would not have me know that. You are not a monster for wanting one dead."
Ciel sighed, and his fingers tightened around Conis's. "I couldn't kill a child," he said, his voice only a little unsure. "…But I would kill a man whose choices are his own."
"Then it is a man we will kill, such that Enel could ever be called a man," Conis promised, glad to see his confidence again.
Hope was such a strange thing in her heart, Conis thought, as they put their heads together and began to think of the plan that would turn Enel's pillars into their own weapon.
"I can do it," Ciel said, his voice calm and confident, peering over the sigils that Gan Fall had transcribed onto separate papers.
"The Tower will be a problem," Conis pointed out, touching the small picture drawn near Enel's shrine. "It is where the Handmaidens of Enel are rumored to live, and we know so little about it and about them. We could easily be walking into a trap. I only have this because Gan Fall nearly risked his life to map it."
"Then I will take it apart, and we will never have to step a foot inside."
"Not even you are that strong-" Conis said, only to stop as Magic blazed, as Magic roared, as it sang and wailed in a song with no words.
It was like kneeling before the heart of the sun, with Ciel sitting there, his eyes vicious.
"I have too long been hampered by my own fears, my own worries," he said. "Enel and all his Daemons have a debt to pay. It seems as if we are in the right place to make sure they do."
Hope was such a dangerous, strange thing to hold, and Conis had always grasped it with light fingers. It could so easily fly away from her.
But it felt more real now, more attainable.
"While the Daemons are feasting, and the warriors battle Enel's Priests, we will destroy the pillars," Ciel said, and in his voice was a supreme confidence.
I will accept nothing else than to make the impossible, possible.
Ciel grinned at her, hard and angry, and she thought that hope was not so dangerous a thing after all, when it had returned one of her ownto her.
"He will not let us hunt the pirates," said one of the women sitting in the Tower.
"He says he will bring their bodies and prisoners to us, that his Priests must have work to do, must have hunts of their own," her sister commented. "Or else they get restless."
"Our little cousin is so caring of his Priests," sniffed another.
The woman on the dais stirred only slightly, her body exhausted and bruised. She had been drained of blood, several chunks of her flesh missing and healing very slowly, but she was still alive.
She was still alive, and Enel's head on a pike waited her.
The mantra that had kept her alive for the years since she had come to this wretched place, used as a food source for the greatest of the Daemons that had come with Enel, the leaders of the Daemons. It would keep her alive for years longer, if it still was necessary.
I will kill them all, one day. Even if it means my life, I will kill them all.
Erin Torres kept her eyes closed, feigning the harsh, pained breathing that came with a Magi's healing sleep until true sleep really did come to her.
She dreamed of the human girl-child who had bowed to her as though she were Queen, and the feel of Jyana's feathers under her fingers.
And she dreamed also of blue scales, and a pirate's flag with a straw hat.
TRANSLATIONS & FOOTNOTES
bahan dil – Sermo; means "sister of the heart". A very respectful term. Is not connotative of a familial relationship, but rather a relationship forged by the bonds of Magic.
