Chapter 17: Aynaet's Protector
As Arthur ran out of the saloon with the others (which took a while because of the sudden swarm of people who wanted to watch the altercation), he immediately spotted Mallacht and Aynaet fighting each other by the horse corral. Aynaet had a staff that had a blade on each end, forming a type of two bladed spear, while Mallacht had a sort of whip in his hand. Aynaet was dodging his blows left and right, occasionally being struck by the burred whip and black electricity that was coming out of the whip itself.
"That's an ingenious design," Darrach commented. "Apparently being whipped doesn't deter the queen much...and neither does the lightning."
Aynaet was struck again, her eyes fueled with rage as she turned and sliced Mallacht in the face with her spear. She actually managed to cut deep but the wound magically healed. The fight continued on and Arthur zoomed in on Mallacht's weapon.
"That's a cat o' none tails. Of course that bastard would use somethin' like that," Arthur remarked coldly, remembering when Lilly had been tortured with one on two different occasions, both times by the same guy.
Arthur really hoped Brutus was suffering for his crimes in whatever afterlife he ended up going to.
"Stop fighting me, Aynaet!" Mallacht demanded, raising his whip to strike her again. Aynaet dodged it with ease but Arthur could tell she was starting to lose steam. "You're only going to hurt yourself more!"
Aynaet shrieked and hissed at him as she leaned on her staff. Mallacht straightened himself and rolled his eyes, taking a deep breath before chuckling. "That's my girl. Where have you been the last century?"
With a loud growl, Aynaet lunged with her weapon and swung down hard, missing him when he turned out of the way and whipped her down. Aynaet fell, her staff rolling across the ground as Mallacht continued to whip her. Arthur frowned as he and others watched in horror at the king beating his wife.
"I've missed you!" the king laughed, giving her a final whip before dropping it and laughing some more. "WOO! What a rush! Hahaha!"
Arthur saw Aynaet's eyes scan the crowd, looking as if she were begging someone to stand up and help her. No one did, which was understandable, he reckoned.
Now he had to figure out how to kidnap the bitch.
He started maneuvering through the people gently while a plan began to form in his mind.
"Dig deep," Aynaet thought to herself as she lay on the ground, immobile while the king was walking around her and talking. "Five hundred fuckin' years and you're still kickin'. Dig deep and find a fuckin' way."
"Now that you're docile, will you require help getting up?" Mallacht asked politely. Aynaet groaned, looking towards her staff that was only a few feet away. She slowly crawled toward it despite the agonizing pain she was in. Mallacht clicked his tongue and shook his head as he rested his boot on her hand. "Uh uh uuuuh," he said in amusement. "Quit while you're still conscious, woman. I have no qualms about impregnating you while you're knocked out."
Aynaet heard a gun click and through blurry vision, she looked upon a figure aiming something at Mallacht. "Step away from the queen," the man growled lowly.
Three more figures approached from behind the man before Aynaet finally passed out from the pain.
When Aynaet reawakened, it was to the feeling of cold water hitting her like a ton of bricks. She gasped as her eyes blinked open, quickly observing that she was in a wooden chair in a dark cavern with her wrists shackled behind her back. She was in immense pain due to her inner wounds but that was the least of her concerns as she looked into the face of what was quite possibly a mad man, given the malicious expression on his face.
"Rise and shine, Your Majesty!" he exclaimed aggressively, staring hard into her face with his hands on his knees. "Get your brain workin'!"
Aynaet took a deep, shaky breath as she looked at her surroundings. There was an Asari, an elf and a Duckworldian standing behind the human male and she gulped, realizing the position she was in. The last thing she remembered was someone telling Mallacht to get away from her, and in that brief moment, Aynaet hoped the stranger had been there to help her.
However, it seemed the exact opposite happened. Aynaet was kidnapped, probably by assassins.
Great.
She sighed and rolled her eyes, glaring into the man's face. She clicked her voice at him bitterly. He chuckled before grasping her braid and yanking roughly, making her squeal briefly in pain and shudder. "Oh ho ho, someone's got a low pain tolerance," he laughed. "This'll be fun."
The duck man grinned before looking at his Pip Boy. "Ya know, I dunna think I'm very threatening as a duck. I'm gonna change me avatar."
As the duck began to change his appearance, Aynaet looked back into Theo's brown eyes with a sneer. Her voice was mid click when she felt his fist strike her face, jerking her head to the side from the blow. She clenched her teeth hard from the stinging, feeling sticky blood go down her inner skin. Theo had hit her directly on an open wound.
"That really fuckin' hurt," she thought.
"We got questions, Your Majesty, and you're gonna answer 'em," Theo said lowly.
Aynaet spit in the man's face and hissed angrily at him, baring her canines that were a little more elongated than average. Theo wrapped his hand around Aynaet's neck, immediately cutting off her air supply. "I ain't in the mood for your sass, little lady. Now...can you speak English?"
As Aynaet tried to breathe, she nodded. "Good," Theo said before letting her neck go, Aynaet coughing and hacking. "Where are my people?"
Aynaet arched a brow at the man. What people? Who was he talking about? While she shook her head with a shrug, she lengthened one of her claws and sliced into her skin, concentrating very hard as blood lines dragged towards the keyhole of her shackles. Theo punched her in the face again and she groaned loudly, noticing she'd bitten her cheek pretty hard. The queen spit out blood before narrowing her eyes at Theo, a low, demonic growl escaping her throat.
This guy was really starting to piss her off.
Theo pulled out a knife and held the point right up to her eyeball. "I've been wonderin'...does an eye pop out when you cut it out or...do you gotta dig in with the blade to get it to come out?" he asked menacingly.
Aynaet had to hand it to the fellow, however. He was kind of demented. She could respect that. The threat of torture wasn't exactly new to her, nor did it scare her. She'd been tortured by Mallacht for centuries now, so this was quite literally nothing to her.
"Actually, if ya get yer blade in just right, ya can sever the eyeball from the optic nerve-" the elf began to say when a giant red wolf appeared from the darkness.
"Morgan," Aynaet thought. "Why is she with these people?"
The wolf nudged Theo away from Aynaet gently with her muzzle, making him look at her in confusion. "Hey, what are you doin'?" he asked.
The shackles came undone and Aynaet silently grasped them to make sure they didn't clatter to the ground. Morgan pressed her forehead into Theo's chest, pushing him further away. "Sweetheart, what are you doin'?"
Morgan then backed up and stood defiantly in front of Aynaet, facing the group down. The queen made a soft smile. At least she had one friend down here. And that was her wolf she affectionately named Morgan. But what was more interesting was why this Theo guy was calling Morgan "sweetheart".
"Don't. Get. Cute. With. My. Wolf," Aynaet said slowly, wincing from the strain in her vocal cords.
Theo bared his white teeth and narrowed his eyes, his whole demeanor changing straight back to "angry maniac". "Your wolf?!" he shouted. "She ain't your wolf, you fuckin' witch! She's m-" Theo suddenly paused, looking deep in thought. He closed his eyes, took a deep breath and held out his palms. "Okay, yep. I'm calm, I'm good."
Aynaet cocked her head to the side, watching the man try to keep himself together. Who the fuck was this clown? The Asari walked up to Theo, pressing a hand to his shoulder. "Are you okay?" she asked gently.
"Yeah," Theo replied.
"Would you prefer if I did the interrogation?"
While the two continued to talk, Aynaet's blood magic continued to work, forming a staff made of wood and metal, molding the shackles to cover both edges of the staff. It was shorter than her previous one and not as powerful, but she could add incantations later. Now she had to figure out how to get by these four morons. Aynaet eyed the Asari who approached her slowly, petting and scratching the beast with a grin.
"Hello. My name is Gretchen," she said with a smile, pulling a gun from her holster and aiming it at Aynaet's forehead. "I'm going to count to ten. Tell us where the Van der Linde clan members are and we might let you live."
"What the fuck? Wait a fuckin'...oh fuck. These are The Four Horsemen," she thought. "And they think I'm the enemy. Great. Just great. Fuckin'...I hate this god damn head dress! I can't tell them who I am now! Wait...wait..." realization suddenly dawned on her face. "Mallacht's been makin' me sacrifice the real versions of them all? Are ya fuckin' kiddin' me?! That lyin' fuckin' piece of shit! I'll kill him!"
Aynaet's face went back to being stoic. If she was at least helpful, maybe they'd be less inclined to kill her. She hoped. Otherwise they'd all die down here if she was killed...maybe. Aynaet wasn't sure what would happen if she died. Would it be like an apocalypse for these people?
"Garden. Of. Names. Saint. Denis," Aynaet replied. "Don't. Know. How. To. Free. Them." She coughed suddenly, blood dripping from her lips as she hacked up blood.
She really needed to let her throat heal, she'd already talked too much today.
Gretchen lowered her gun and holstered it. "Well, that was surprisingly easy. Such a pushover. What is the Garden of Names?"
"...W-Where...Mallacht..." Aynaet coughed loudly, spitting blood before coughing more.
Gretchen backed away with a frown. "Why do you keep doing that? Are you still injured?"
Aynaet hissed, not wanting to admit it but maybe, just maybe, this woman would show a little mercy. She nodded, took a deep breath and tried to speak once more. "Lost...voice...talking...hurts."
Gretchen eyed the wolf for a moment before looking at Aynaet again. "Do you have any other form of communication?"
Aynaet hacked and coughed again before pulling her hands forward and settling her brand new staff over her lap. The others immediately pulled out their guns and pointed at her. She held up her hands before signing to them. [Do you know sign language?]
Gretchen and the others nodded. "How the fuck did ya do that?!" the elf shouted.
Aynaet formed letters with her fingers once more. [Magic. I mean no harm. Yet.]
The people glanced at each other cautiously but kept their guns aimed. "We do mean you harm," Theo growled. "Answer our questions and that might change."
Aynaet nodded politely before speaking with her hands once more. [What would you like to know?]
"Why have you taken our people?"
Aynaet frowned, knowing this was going to be a long explanation. She began to sign again. [Mallacht holds a lottery in Saint Denis and pulls people from one of his factories. Then he forces me to gut them and put their bodies in the Garden of Names. Makes me use blood magic to turn them into statues.]
"Forces you?" Theo asked, lowering his gun a little. "Whatchu mean?"
Aynaet sighed and signed yet again. [Punishment. For something he did but I got blamed for.]
"Which was?"
[I'd rather not say.]
Theo frowned deeply before holstering his gun entirely. "Do you know who we are?"
[The Four Horsemen.]
"Hm," Theo said before pressing something on his Pip Boy. His avatar disappeared and Arthur Morgan stood in his place. "Now tell me about this, uh, sex doll you had made to look like me."
Aynaet gaped at Arthur, unsure what the fuck to even say. She didn't even know he was still alive. "Oh, I definitely can't tell him who I am now," she thought to herself. "He might kill me or himself if he finds out what happened to me."
The queen tried her best not to hyperventilate. The others removed their avatars and Aynaet had to stop herself from leaping out of the chair when O'Callaghan, Lugh and Sir Jack were revealed.
What the fuck was her father doing here?
Aynaet had so many questions. What the hell took them so long to open the door? Did Cahira and The Morrigan make it off the Island of Exi? Were Apate and Carman finally dead? Did they kill Dubh to get the door open or did they have to find special items to get it open? Why the fuck did it take them five hundred years? Did Brigid get her stone heart fixed? Were the kids still alive?
"I'm waitin' for an answer, woman," Arthur said impatiently.
"Fuck. Fuck fuck fuck. I'm gonna cry," she thought, deciding to focus on the matter at hand. The other questions could wait. "One thing at a time. I gotta lie. Think of somethin'! Anythin'!"
Aynaet took a deep breath and signed one word. [Experiment.]
Arthur chuckled bitterly. "An experiment? You expect me to believe that bullshit?"
[An experiment of sorts.]
Arthur bowed his head a little as he grasped his gun belt. "Alright. Do you know where Rose is?"
Aynaet nodded. She and Rose had been thick as thieves for the last ninety seven years, although she'd been unaware of it until six years ago. She and Rose ended up beating the shit out of each other, but then they reconciled and joined forces. Aynaet signed her thoughts. [Rose has been in disguise for almost a hundred years. She is a double agent. She goes by the name Violet.]
"Oh, we've heard quite a bit about her," O'Callaghan said with a smile. "She's Mallacht's right hand...woman."
Aynaet nodded, forming words with her fingers. [Violet was our eldest child. Rose encountered her on her first time in here and, well, essentially absorbed her and assumed Violet's identity.]
"Absorbed her?!" Lugh asked. "Alright, that's...that's quite enough!" he said, pointing a finger at Arthur. "Ya better feckin' tell me what's going on here! Lilly has an entire menagerie of technology inside her head and I wantah know why! I wantah know why O'Callaghan looks like a feckin' tree! What the fuck is she?!"
Arthur sighed as he looked at his friend. "Darrach, can you shut off the, uh...yeah, the feed, just for a moment. I need to tell Lugh somethin'."
"Oh dear. Five hundred years and Lugh still doesn't know?" Aynaet thought. That was suspicious. There was no damn way they'd wait this long to tell him, especially if her kids survived and procreated. Maybe Rose's theory on time moving faster down here in Hell had some merit after all.
While Arthur pulled Lugh off to the side, O'Callaghan and Jack looked at Aynaet. Morgan had long ago settled on the ground near Aynaet's feet to take a nap. The queen cleared her throat and signed to O'Callaghan. [Just out of curiosity, how long has it been on the outside?]
"You don't know?" O'Callaghan asked with a curious look. When Aynaet shook her head, the white leafed lady sighed. "Six months."
"Oh my fuckin' Jesus Christ Almighty!" Aynaet screamed in her head. "SIX MONTHS?! NO...no, keep it together, keep it together."
Aynaet slowly nodded while doing her best to not freak out and scare the shit out of them all. It also didn't help that some of her wounds were still bleeding. "Ya seem, uh...shocked by this information," Jack said with an amused expression, crossing his arms over his chest. "That feckin' husband of yers doesna keep ya very informed, does he?"
The queen smirked a little and shook her head before signing her response. [That son of a bitch has kept much from me. He'll get his due one day, though. I intend to make sure of it.]
"Oh, he's gettin' his due real quick now that we're here," Jack chuckled.
"WHAT?!" Aynaet heard Lugh shout.
Arthur clamped his hand over Lugh's mouth. "Pipe down," he grumbled to his god friend. "I know it's a lot, but-"
"HOW THE FECK DID IT HAPPEN? WHEN THE FUCK...H-HOW THE-"
"Lugh, Lugh, Luuugh," Arthur said, putting a hand on his shoulder and shaking him slightly. "Calm down, it's alright."
"B-but Lilly's a tree! How the feck is she a tree?! And an Atlantean machine?! Did The Morrigan...did she have relations with Darrach?!"
"No!" Sir Jack barked with a laugh. "The Morrigan had an...accident, of sorts, and Darrach ended up...uh...making a womb fer her body to grow in fer a while. It caused some, uh...side effects."
"Side effects?! Having someone's very being altered is a side effect?!"
Aynaet chirped with a laugh and shook her head. "Poor Lugh," she thought.
Lugh jerked his head in Aynaet's direction. "Are ya fecking laughing at me?!" he yelled. Aynaet pinched two fingers together with a loud chirp and Lugh came storming over. He was about to strike her when Morgan smacked his hand with her vocal cords. "Lilly!" he yelled, shaking his hand. "That hurt!"
Aynaet raised a brow, then it dawned on her. They thought the wolf was her.
"That's just great," she thought sarcastically. "I gotta get to Mount Hagen and activate the damn beacon now that the door is open, but I can't do that with Mallacht around. Oh wait...what happened to that asshole, anyway?"
Aynaet began signing with her hands. [What happened to the king?]
Arthur barked with laughter. "Lilly showed up, he tucked tail and ran!"
The queen blinked in shock. [He was scared of her?]
"Oh yeah! Then we kidnapped you and brought you here."
Aynaet nodded then sighed and stood up, holding her shorter staff in one hand while signing with the other. [Since we've established I'm not the enemy here, I have things I must attend to.]
The group grabbed their guns and aimed them at her. "You ain't goin' anywhere, Your Majesty," Arthur hissed. "We ain't established a damn thing."
Aynaet raised both her eyebrows with a smirk on her face, still signing. [Is that so? Even though I've been sitting here with a weapon almost this entire time and haven't attempted to kill any of you?]
"We don't trust easily."
[Smart.] Aynaet stroked her chin as she thought things over. [Then I propose at least one of you will have to come with me.]
"Pardon?" Jack asked. "Where?"
[Mount Hagen.]
"For what?"
[To announce The Four Horsemen's arrival, evacuate Rose's victims and call the banners. We go to war.]
Okay, so...I had this whole...thing planned for this book, alright? But I've decided to go with a different course with the book, one that is...far less angsty than I originally intended because quite frankly, I think you guys have had enough of the bullshit lol.
