Chapter 18: The Crow
"Well, this could've gone a lot worse," Aynaet thought to herself, trying to remain positive as she walked with her wrists bound by rope and attached to Morgan.
Arthur and the others were riding their mounts while Aynaet was forced to walk, the group dressed in winter clothing while Aynaet was dressed in her tattered and wet casuals. They didn't trust her to even ride with any of them. Which was fine. After all, Aynaet chose not to tell them who she really was. And if tying her up made them feel better, that was fine.
But she was in a lot of pain, she was cold and she was wet.
At least O'Callaghan resurrected Holly. Aynaet had tried to approach the horse earlier but Holly was terrified of the queen, as were Doc and Tessa. Understandable, of course, given the fear enchantment that was attached to the god awful body suit she wore.
"This staff is amazing!" O'Callaghan exclaimed happily as she studied Aynaet's smaller staff. "Did you make this with blood magic?" she asked as she looked over her shoulder at the queen. When Aynaet nodded, O'Callaghan turned back around with a grin. "May I ask who taught you how to do that?"
"The Crow," the queen replied in her gritty, barely audible voice.
"Who's that?"
Suddenly an acorn with helicopter fins appeared right beside Aynaet and she jumped at little at the sight of it. "Your Majesty," she heard Darrach say from the acorn. "Might I be allowed to try something with your voice?"
Aynaet smiled at the acorn, poking it with a fingernail and chirping. "Adorable," she uttered before coughing up blood. "Yes, please," she groaned.
Everyone stopped as the acorn shot a laser from its lens at Aynaet's throat, making her shriek and hiss before covering her throat and glaring at the acorn. "Apologies, Your Majesty. I should've warned you that it might hurt." Aynaet coughed a few times before collapsing to her knees and hacking blood everywhere. "Oh dear..."
"Are you alright, Your Majesty?" O'Callaghan asked as she came running over.
"What the hell are you doin', O'Callaghan?" Arthur asked. "Don't be givin' her special treatment."
"Why are you being so mean?!" O'Callaghan snapped before stomping her foot. "She's been nothing but cooperative with us!"
"That don't mean shit! For all we know, she could be springin' a trap for us!"
As Aynaet still brought up blood, O'Callaghan gave her husband a scowl. "And if you're wrong?"
"Then I'll owe her an apology, but until then, she ain't a friend."
Aynaet managed to hack up a little bit more blood before she stood on wobbly feet and took a deep breath. When she tried to speak, she couldn't. With a sigh, Aynaet started signing. [It's fine, I understand the suspicion. Let's go, we should be coming up to Ewing Basin soon.]
"Ewing Basin?" Sir Jack asked.
"An abandoned town," Arthur replied. "Or at least the original town was. I don't know if this one is, though." He eyed Aynaet with scrutiny. "How do you know about Ewing Basin?"
Aynaet blew a raspberry before signing again. [You think I don't know what's in my own damn kingdom?]
With a very scary look, Arthur dismounted immediately and marched up to Aynaet. "This ain't your god damn kingdom, it's my wife's mind!" he shouted wildly, making people flinch. "You all been runnin' rampant through this place like it's your own personal vacation spot, havin' no regard for the fact that you are inside a fuckin' person! You got a son minin' materials, a daughter who lets monsters roam about the place, another son who is a brothel-keeper, and apparently a bunch of other kids I ain't met but I hear tell they're no better than you or Mallacht!"
Aynaet huffed, her throat clenching as she tried to keep herself from losing her temper. If she got mad, it wouldn't help anything. Being yelled at as if she was the problem wasn't helping anything either, but Aynaet raised enough children to learn patience when one threw a hissy fit such as this one. Still, she knew Arthur well enough. He just needed to vent his anger.
It was also very touching how much concern he had over her mind, though, so that was something. Even though Arthur had no clue he was taking out his anger on his actual wife.
"Arthur," O'Callaghan said, placing a hand on his arm. "You need to calm down."
Arthur narrowed his eyes at O'Callaghan. "Don't tell me what I need," he growled.
The white haired woman arched a brow and crossed her arms, cocking her head as she smirked at her husband. "I may be the submissive wife, but I'm not easily intimidated, Arthur. I get that you're upset about all of this, and rightly so. It's really wrong what's been done to us, but what's done is done." O'Callaghan grazed his cheek with her lips. "I know what you saw in the threat, and I know what we've been hearing about the queen, but maybe that's what Mallacht wants people to think. Maybe he wants people to hate her. What we've heard from others doesn't match up with what we've seen from her."
"How are you this trustin' after everythin' you been through?" Arthur asked.
"Because I told myself I wouldn't let what happened to me change who I am, and it hasn't," O'Callaghan replied simply. "Even without my seer eye, I do have psychic abilities. I feel the good and evil in people and this woman," she pointed at the queen, "is not evil. The darkness that surrounds her is not her own."
Aynaet's eyes widened. What happened to her seer eye? Did she know the skin Aynaet wore was just a magical body cage? "Fuck, does she know who I am?" Aynaet thought.
O'Callaghan went digging around in Arthur's satchel before pulling out a skeleton key. "I bet this turns it off," she said.
"Fuck!" Aynaet thought.
O'Callaghan turned to Aynaet with a smile as she held up the key. "Lilly was nice enough to leave this for us in the vault by Colter, among other things. Does this key go to the hole in the back of your neck?"
Aynaet quickly covered up the back of her neck. She couldn't let them unlock the cage, at least not now. Also, the skeleton key was one use only and they needed it to call the banners. She quickly shook her hands and began to sign. [Don't use that on me. We need it for something far more important.]
"Which is?"
[To call the banners. Can we get going now? I'm getting cold.]
Arthur grasped the key from O'Callaghan, studying it as his white wife went through her Pip Boy inventory. "Let's get you some better clothes first," she said. "It won't do us any good if you freeze to death."
Aynaet thanked the woman as new winter clothes appeared on the ground suddenly. O'Callaghan shooed the men away while adjusting Morgan to act as a curtain so she could help the queen change.
"So really, who are you?" she asked as she untied Aynaet's wrists.
Aynaet shook her head before signing. [Nobody important.]
"Of course you're important, don't let the other guys get to you. They're just a bunch of grumpy, suspicious oafs." Aynaet chirped with laughter as she pulled off her tattered shirt, wincing when she felt pain in her back from the movement. "Are you okay?"
Aynaet nodded before grabbing the black long sleeved thermal shirt that O'Callaghan had and slipped it on, doing her best not to cringe from the awful sensation of feeling fabric brush across wounded flesh. She felt O'Callaghan touch the keyhole and she turned, immediately grasping the woman by the wrist and shaking her head.
"I'm sorry, I just..." O'Callaghan cleared her throat and showed her fingertip, showing a drop of sticky, dark red liquid on it. "This was coming out of the key hole. Are you...what is this?"
Aynaet snatched the rest of the clothes up and shoved O'Callaghan away softly, pointing for her to keep watch. The white goddess nodded as she looked at the drop. The queen hurried to change into black trousers and a forest green woolen overcoat and hung to her ankles. After putting her tennis shoes back on, she tossed the old clothes into the woods and waited for O'Callaghan to tie her up again, but Aynaet froze when she saw O'Callaghan taste the liquid. O'Callaghan's eyes widened in shock.
"That's blood," she said, approaching Aynaet slowly. "And not just any blood. That is Atlantean machine/tree hybrid blood. Who are you?"
The queen huffed with a scrunched brow before pulling out leather gloves to cover her hands. She then signed. [As I said, nobody important.]
"Why are you bleeding? Are you not healing? You don't have any wounds. Or scars, either."
Aynaet resisted the urge to roll her eyes. She definitely had wounds and scars. The Demon Queen imagined her real skin resembled what one could only see in a slaughterhouse. A ruined canvas, blotched and torn to shreds. And as any "artist" would do, Mallacht always left his mark with each strike. Aynaet had never seen the scars, but Mallacht told her what kind of wound the whip left behind.
That way, people would know who she belonged to if she ever managed to break free from her cage of dragon bone and skin.
"Your Majesty? Are you injured?" O'Callaghan asked with worry in her voice.
"Would you two hurry up?!" Arthur shouted impatiently.
Before O'Callaghan could ask her anything else, Aynaet quickly appeared around Morgan in view of the men. [Apologies. Let us continue.]
Arthur pinched the bridge of his nose when O'Callaghan came around as well. "Sweetheart, why did you untie her?" he asked in a strained voice.
"Because she's riding on Morgan the rest of the way," O'Callaghan replied, ushering Aynaet to get on the wolf.
"Why?"
"Because I said so, Arthur!" O'Callaghan snapped, helping Aynaet climb onto Morgan before climbing up behind the queen. "I'll ride with her since you fucking arseholes forgot what chivalry is!"
Lugh snickered in his saddle on Tessa while Jack narrowed his eyes at his daughter. "I dunna remember ya havin' such a dirty mouth, young lady," he grumbled.
"I was raised by outlaws, Dad. It comes with the territory." O'Callaghan urged Morgan forward. "C'mon, let's go."
Arthur grumbled before walking to Holly and hoisting himself up in the saddle, then he and the others trailed after the three women. Aynaet quirked her mouth before looking over her shoulder as buildings came into view. O'Callaghan looked at Aynaet and the queen mouthed the words "thank you".
"You're welcome," she said before urging Morgan to go into a trot. "There's Ewing Basin. Is it abandoned?"
Aynaet shook her head but signed. [Nothing to worry about as long as we keep ourheads down.]
O'Callaghan nodded and looked back at the men. "Aynaet says we should be fine but don't bring unnecessary attention to ourselves," she said.
The group got closer to the town and Aynaet saw it was bustling with people. She immediately diverted her eyes to Morgan's fur. Aynaet didn't want to upset anyone, she just wanted to pass through without a fuss. If she acted normal and didn't make eye contact with anyone, it'd be fine.
According to one of Arthur's old journals and his occasional retelling of the fight with the O'Driscoll's, the Ewing Basin they were passing now was not what he described. He'd said Ewing Basin had been an old abandoned mining town like Colter, but this place was very much inhabited. Aynaet had Morgan turn to the right as they continued on, some people stopping what they were doing to point and gawk at the queen. Aynaet kicked Morgan's sides and the wolf broke into a run.
"Woa, easy!" O'Callaghan exclaimed. "What's the rush?"
[I just want to get to the damn mountain.]
People started shouting in the background and the other three men and the flying acorn quickly caught up. "What was that about?" Jack asked with confusion in his voice.
Aynaet eyed him for a moment before facing forward and signing. [Long story.]
She looked behind her to see people standing and waving them down so she quickly went back to looking straight ahead. The group made sharp turns as they began their trek up the snowy mountain, eventually having to slow down due to the slippery slopes that appeared. Aynaet pulled her coat around herself tightly, shivering from the cold wind whipping around them. She then eyed Arthur who was glaring at her fiercely.
Aynaet frowned before moving Morgan to a faster pace. Taking the brunt of Arthur's temper was a lot harder than she thought it was going to be. Still, she made her choice. Now she had to live with it.
"If you just tell him who you are..." she heard Morgan say in her mind.
"They don't need to know, at least not yet," Aynaet thought as they all trotted up the mountain further.
"If not now, when?" the wolf asked.
"When I'm certain what I look like on the inside isn't going to send them into a blind rage."
"Fair enough."
They made a hard right up the mountain, some of the horses and Morgan occasionally slipping but regaining their footing. Aynaet looked at her surroundings, grinning softly at the beauty of the scenery before her. The mountains had always been a beautiful sight to her, especially when she was on top of one. Looking down at the land from one of the highest places inside her mind was truly a sight to behold.
"What are these...handles here on Lilly's back?" Sir Jack asked.
Aynaet signed her answer. [Steering.]
"Steering? Fer what?"
[I'll show you later. We're almost to the top.]
The group was careful to maneuver through the thick snow and the freezing, high powered winds. Aynaet pulled the collar up on her coat and sunk further into the warmth. When she saw the golden top of The Crow's observatory tower, Aynaet smiled and hurried Morgan on. Originally the area in which the black and gold colored observatory stood possessed a few run down buildings, but thanks to Aynaet, she was able to synthesize proper building materials and helped The Crow build the place.
Well, Aynaet was the one who built it, really. The old crow merely sat in a chair and watched while enjoying hot cidar and biscuits.
"Wow," O'Callaghan said behind her as the observatory was now right in front of them. "Who lives here?"
[The Crow.]
"Who's the crow?"
Aynaet smirked while pointing at Lugh, then she signed. [He'll know once he sees hers, I'm sure.]
The large, golden front doors of the observatory opened up and Aynaet and the rest looked to see none other than Babd, in the black cloak, standing in the doorframe with a black elaborately decorated staff in her hands.
"It's about time you showed up," the old woman said.
"Babd?!" Lugh and Sir Jack shouted in surprise.
"The one and only," she remarked before ushering them over with her hand. "Get over here, bring your horses and the wolf in."
The group hurried over while dismounting and quickly brought the animals in before Babd shut the doors. Aynaet scratched under Morgan's neck with a grin before walking to the old lady and embracing her in a hug.
"It's good to see you...my queen," Babd said slowly before looking into Aynaet's eyes. "Child, are you injured?"
"Yes!" O'Callaghan barked. "I knew it!"
Jack and Lugh ran over, Lugh picking up the old lady and twirling her as he hugged her. "We thought ya faded!" he exclaimed happily.
Babd laughed with a shake of her head. "And miss all this? No thank you!"
Lugh settled her down and Arthur cocked his head as he looked at the old woman. "Uh...don't I know you from somewhere?" he asked.
Babd smiled a toothless smile before walking to him and patting his shoulder softly. "Yes. From Tír na nÓg. When you were dead."
"...Oh."
As the group studied the grandeur of the place, Rose popped out from behind a door with a large tray of food in her hands, her back pushing the door open. "I dunna know how many people yer expectin', Aunt Babd, bu-" Rose paused when she turned and her eyes locked on Arthur and the rest, her whole face going pale. Her hair was still long, black and straight, save for a few black oak leaves that were entangled in her strands. Her eyes were no longer black but a deep sea blue. Rose cleared her throat immediately and set the tray down on a nearby table. "Thanks for the warnin', Aunt Babd," Rose hissed sarcastically.
O'Callaghan ran and almost tackled Rose into a hug, making the dark haired woman stiffen. "I missed you!" O'Callaghan sobbed.
Rose took a deep breath and shut her eyes before holding O'Callaghan in a tight hug. "I missed ya, too," she sniffled.
All three men came over and hugged both the women and Aynaet smiled sadly at the reunion, watching Arthur kiss Rose and watching her father and Rose meet for the first time. She wished she could be a part of it. Rose and her made eye contact and the dark haired woman frowned.
"Why aren't ya joinin' in on the hug?" Rose asked Aynaet telepathically.
"They don't know it's me," Aynaet replied. "And I'd like to keep it that way...for now."
After having guided the animals to an area of the observatory that acted as a stable, Babd walked over to Aynaet slowly with a bent back. "First things first, my queen. We must treat your wounds. Come."
Babd turned away to walk to a different part of the observatory. Aynaet followed while the flying acorn flew around to observe everything in the building. "This is fascinating!" Darrach said through the acorn. "Look at all these books and...and mechanisms and tools! How long have you been down here, Lady Babd?!"
"Oh, ever since Rose's first attack," the crow said casually as she sorted through some things on her medical herbs shelf. "She swallowed me up."
Lugh, Jack, O'Callaghan and Arthur all gawked at Babd and Rose. "What? How did ya leave The Morrigan?!" Lugh asked.
Babd chuckled softly before pulling out a large glass jar full of white, blue and purple salts. "Desperate times called for desperate measures, Lugh," she replied while opening the jar lid and sniffing. "We suspected for a long time that something was living in Lilly. Something bad. So...I performed the Kruticus Spell."
"But Babd! Now ya can never return tah yer sister's body!" Lugh exclaimed in shock. "Without yer powers, The Morrigan, she-"
"As I said, desperate times called for desperate measures," Babd said with a shake of her head before looking at Aynaet with a smirk. "Boys don't listen, do they?" she joked. The queen chirped like a bird as she laughed. "It's scented with vanilla."
Aynaet sniffed the jar and her eyes fluttered as she smiled. With an enthusiastic nod, the queen grabbed the jar and strolled to one of the many doors that lined the room. "And where are you goin'?" Arthur barked, making Aynaet stop as the others paused to watch the possible altercation. "You're still our hostage, woman."
Aynaet eyed the man before signing. [Healing bath. I have wounds.]
"Where?" Arthur asked with a curious look.
[Underneath.]
The queen saw Arthur swallow hard as he looked her over. "That...what do you mean underneath?"
Aynaet sighed. How was she going to explain this without giving herself away? Ultimately, she couldn't find a reason to tell him what this magical casing was so she signed two words. [It's complicated.]
The Demon Queen went to a door and opened it, then she walked in and shut it behind her before leaning against it and bowing her head, trying to not let herself cry.
