Compositions: "The Power of Dreams" and "A Dream of Unity" by Phil Rey Gibbons.
In the beginning, we will have a glimpse into Kori's past. I still have not read enough comics, just Internet research and basic YouTube videos for understanding (and seen the modern DCMU movies as well as the Teen Titans animated series from 2003). Some things have changed, so based on your knowledge, judge with your own eyes but please be nice.
Chapter Seven
The Power of Dreams and Unity
The Titans were her family ever since she was overthrown by her own sister. After she'd been bested in the traditional duel of who would be chosen as the next leader based on prowess, intellect, and wisdom.
Tamaran was renowned for its legendary freedom in love, and devotion not limited solely to family and friends, but also for its prowess and honor in battle. Koriand'r, princess and second child, was supposed to become its next empress after defeating her elder sister in a duel overseen by the Warlords of Okaara - a society of ancient warriors who prepared her people for the worst to come even during times of peace. You had to abide by the rules of war and the power position, or else, and that was what happened with her beloved sister whom she once shared a beautiful bond with. I still am unable to understand why and how my sister could do such a thing. Yet at the same time...
At the same time, Komand'r had brought it on herself, but it hadn't been her fault in the beginning. She'd contracted an extremely rare disease that deprived her of her ability to fly like Koriand'r, and not only her loss in the spar between sisters over the seat, but the grounding made the younger sister rightful heir.
Kom lashed out in rage and betrayal, and she would have killed her own sister had their elders not been there. Soon after, her expulsion from the kingdom was proclaimed.
She was never seen again until they were attacked one night when they were most vulnerable. When those demons in armor at her command slew their most able.
She was my sister, and you could FEEL the strength and love without words. We seldom spent time together, but...it was there.
And when I was brought before her in chains, she stood over me with her arms over her bosom like she had won that day and not me. It was like the moment I saved her from the fall off the cliff; she returned the favor by striking back, declaring that you should never let your enemy live.
And that conqueror in front of her - the blood of their parents and younger brother on her hands and blade - was just what the warlords had proclaimed: without a heart and soul, consumed by hate and vengeance, and a disgrace.
Those demons which ravaged their home, their origins unknown at the time, were one and the same when she vengefully ravaged Gretchen Goode as her imprisoned, naked, and abused beloved was taken away to safety by Roy, Jason, and the young enchantress that they always talked about. Princess Koriand'r would see this witch burn in hell, just as her own sister had promised on her exile.
Why would Komand'r do this? She always asked herself that question time and time again only to come up with nothing. All she knew was that she had to escape with her life.
The things she would have suffered - she refused to dwell on the worst, based on knowledge in neighboring nations. Someday, she would return, but she had to enlist the help of Gotham, their ally, only for that treaty to be broken off as soon as she learned Komand'r had taken up an offer from Oswald Cobblepot, an exile who had provoked his former homeland by abducting an infamous philosopher.
The armored demons chased her all the way to Nanda Parbat; she had to lead them into the east, where they would be most unwelcome. It was there she came across the Wayne sons and their captain who coincidentally took up temporary residence as the war ignited.
Everything happened around the same time and after she came across Richard Grayson. She liked to believe with all her heart that she had fallen in love with him the second their lips touched, a technique her people used to first understand another language. His eyes on her bared breasts draped over with ornate pewter coins and chains, centered with a medallion, hair crowned with the same treasures, and her exquisite waistline encircled with swagging chains and numerous medallions, finished with cuffs attached to chains exotic with rhodochrosite gems.
The Wayne family had been affected as much as she and her people had been; they were all caught up in the crossfires and had to see this to the end.
Koriand'r had gained love and a couple of little brothers in the process. Roy Harper was quite the character, his daughter on the brink of womanhood showing lots of promise for her future.
If the old witch wants to take everything we have and replace it with mindless obedience, she has another thing coming. To her, it's one clear purpose, but it serves only herself. There are tyrants in this world, and they always get taken down in the end.
Gretchen Goode will get that coming sooner than she thinks.
Koriand'r would rather die for a purpose she believed in, as would her beloved and their friends, NOT for an unrepentant monster. No, not like Richard would have if Jason, Roy, and Kristine had not rescued him.
~o~
This devil of a hag was the one pulling the strings.
And that must mean the Penguin and the Empress of Tamaran were her pawns. Kori was thankful that she got to learn this through Roy, linked via the stone they shared.
"What is your intent?" she demanded, standing over her fallen enemy. It was just the two of them now. The old versus the young. "Was my precious heart just a test subject for world domination and then to the entire world?!" She would never put it past Cobblepot or Komand'r together, so it didn't surprise her in the slightest that this woman...
Granny was subdued for now, but it wouldn't be long before she regained her strength. Remarkably, she had the patience of the oldest trees in all the lands. Her hair was now all over the place, gown gathering dust and debris to tarnish its aesthetic. "Before I kill you where you lie," the princess growled, hands keeping the emerald fires aflame for the other's eyes, "you are going to answer every question I have, and you will tell me everything you told my friends - old BITCH. Because that's what you are: a mean female rabid dog that deserves to be shot down."
"If my Ghost Pit hadn't been shattered in our mayhem -" The elder nodded behind her, but Kori refused to take her eyes away to see the wreckage for obvious reasons. "- then you would have gotten the discipline you deserve for running that mouth of yours, brat. At least I will enjoy the day you and your friends end up under the palm of my hand without any effort. Not even the little witch would stop me if she could try." And that meant no one would think to rise to her, or even plan the moves.
"Then if it's the snap of a finger or the blink of an eye you want," Koriand'r said with a smile straining her face as she shoved all her rage to the forefront once more, "you'll get both hands AND your eyes removed before you do anything!"
She was ready to blow the she-beast out of existence when there was that hand being held up. "Oh, dearie, you don't want to do that just yet. You wanted me to answer your questions, did you not? How can you know before you kill me?"
The princess from the north relaxed her defenses even as the demons who had pursued her out of her birthplace surrounded her in the dozens. At least she could kill them all this time, having gotten much stronger over the years. "Well, go on," she spat.
"This world was meant to be remade into the image of Darkseid himself - perhaps your people know of his existence?" Yes...oh, X'Hal, this can't be! Granny chuckled as she caught the senses. "But it's my turn. I rid this world of the old fool long ago. Everything will be destroyed and then rebuilt to MY liking. What more is there to it? You all will be slaves to my whim and not only that but for those who die for me and lose their purpose...let's just say it's too glorious to contemplate." Her eyes flickered around, which would mean only one thing.
Kori gasped to herself, not looking around because the answer was there.
"Yes, Princess, what dies or is still living becomes these soldiers of mine. These Parademons were once other people from other lands and worlds, but now they serve the very purpose all of you shall."
So...they were converted from one being into another against their will. "You stinermite -!" Kori roared, now drawing out her double-sided axe and encasing it with emerald fire from the sun. And she would have finished Granny off for good if she hadn't been outnumbered and with this information; that left her with the impossible. Kristine Crane's father was still held prisoner, and this old woman wasn't going to reveal his location easily, nor could she truly be killed by conventional means.
"I intend to let you go now, Princess Koriand'r of Tamaran, because the last days ahead of you and your friends, AND your beloved prince, will be the last conscious times you spend together as you try to stop me."
~o~
She stripped out of the ripped shreds of her dress and retrieved her sleeping kirtle. She decided to bathe in the morning because it didn't seem Richard would rouse during the night after Kristine's elixirs and stones did their job. I'm more worried about what nightmares he is having, but if I remain with him tonight, perhaps my presence can help lessen his pains.
It didn't change the fact that the one near and dear to her heart and had put the child she was carrying in her body had been greatly dishonored. She was prepared for the outcome as soon as his eyes opened.
The ivory chemise settled over her bared buttocks and thighs like the finest leaves of the wild, making her breasts tremble and travel downwards to her womb, where the barely formed fetus shivered with her; her palm touched the surface. "Don't fear, little bumgorf," Kori breathed, looking down at it. She was a warrior and a leader, not always by established position or birthright. The heart could be stomped on as many times as it could take, and that happened to her more times than she could bear. Her hatred towards Granny Goodness was the latest fuel to her ire. And speaking of which, Kori intended to ask Jason's sweetheart for help because the stone of her people was among those in the Belt of Gotham. Sitting down on her side of the bed, halfway turning around to look at her sleeping darling with a sad smile and wrapping her arms around herself as she continued to talk to their little seed. "Love is selfless and motivated by empathy and action. Someday, you too will experience it, but it's not without tragedy and anguish. It is easy to gain but also easy to lose.
"This world is always going to be a dangerous place, but it doesn't mean we can't live and thrive. Not when there are things and people to believe in. Always show compassion to those who need it...but to the exceptions who never show remorse for their actions, they are not worthy." The fire in her heart turned raven black at the mere mention of the old hag responsible. The one who was controlling everything behind the doors. "Your father, our friends, and I will teach you all of this when you are older, but right now, there is a demon out there that needs to be vanquished." She closed her eyes and bowed her head, turning her back to Dick.
"If we don't stop Granny, she'll become unstoppable. That means all of us will be under her rule. I can see it all, and this: you will die along with your mother before you could be born and live. I cannot bear to let that come to pass!"
She had to try and sleep before her emotions got the better of her, so she pulled back the warm blankets and slid beside Richard. She took it all extremely carefully, refusing to be responsible for causing more bad dreams...
...only to get nothing more than a soft sigh when he turned his face towards her, eyelids fluttering for a moment before remaining closed.
Kori smiled and settled in her spot, a hair's breadth away from him. For now, everything seemed so far away, but the peace wouldn't last.
~o~
Hardly anyone slept well last night, it turned out.
Dick was still asleep when they gathered in the kitchen for the morning meal, but after looking him over, Kristine assured them all that he would pull through physically, but that also meant they had to keep their guard up, because what happened to him ruined a man, just like much worse.
The princess arrived later, but when the little siren herself showed up, Jason's breath hitched in his throat. Siren was a metaphorical way of speaking. Watery blue flowed around her legs and broke in the front of the skirt to show a kirtle of yellow soft as butter. Her breasts rose like two perfect hilltops in unison over the bodice. The exquisite flames of her hair curled and tumbled over one shoulder. Jason wasn't sure if she was just as beautiful as she'd been at fifteen, or if she was moreso. Either way, his heart was stolen with greater force. She looked his way and smiled, as soon as he stopped taking in her beauty from the neck down.
Lian brought the freshly baked bread to the middle of the table for all of them, along with sweet wine they made personally from the vineyard in the rear of the castle. Nearly everything they had here was grown and taken from the wild. "No one's going to discuss plans on an empty stomach," she told everyone, placing a palm on her father's shoulder. He looked up at her and smiled tiredly.
"Yeah, don't mind if I stuff myself to help my emotions, love," Garfield told her with a batting of his lashes to help lighten the mood and also to reassure them both. She returned it with a shrug of one shoulder and set about slicing the bread into individual thick slices, leaving room for seconds, and that was all they'd get. Meaning they had to start rationing before the supply got low, and their crops would need tending again.
"Have I said it enough that you'd make a fantastic wife, Lian?" the young man asked her with a crooked grin that made her turn her face away with a blush.
"Rascal," was her answer as she set about getting everyone's morning wine.
"In that case, you children ought to go ahead and get married before the fighting begins, and once the dust settles, we all have a bigger union, and Garfield can finally find work," Roy said after a deep drink, wiping his chin with the back of his hand. The green-skinned boy didn't disagree with him.
Just what we've been telling them. They're of age and are made for each other, but this life we've lived and the damned war...
"Speaking of which," Jason had to say after getting up and helping Kristine into her seat beside him like a gentleman before taking his place again, "I pray Dick and Kori will survive this."
The air became somewhat tense again, looks exchanged and all worried. "I do, too," Kristine answered, "yet while I said the rest is up to them, the stone of the Tamaranean people brings about peace, balance, and renewal. It's helpful for those unloved and abandoned, and in addition...taking the time to heal from rape."
That's...good, right? But we've all seen this, and men often took their own lives in the end out of shame. Not every one of them can be saved. Jason had lived on the streets and witnessed enough of that himself. But before anyone could say anything, a certain voice beat them all to it.
"Then it will have no problem benefitting those who suffered just as I have."
There Dick stood, leaning against the archway of the kitchen entrance, hair untouched and flattened from the pillow, and dark circles present under his eyes which were now a dull gray-blue like water beneath storm clouds. He looked at all of them with the same expression and tone: cold and determined as ice, and fragile if applied with all kinds of pressure. "We are going to be fighting fire with fire - Kristine, your father's belt against our enemies," he said when he ended with her in sight.
Bumgorf - a protégée or pupil, usually in need of a parent or guardian (k'norfka). From a Tamaranean translation I found. It's hard to find an online translator for every word in the language, like the languages of the real world. :(
Stinermite - a type of Tamaranean parasite, which is EXACTLY what Granny deserves to be called. She's evil incarnate who gives nothing in return.
Rhodochrosite cleanses and balances the body's emotions, bringing resolution, peace, and renewal, also renowned for healing childhood wounds and thus earning its title "Inner Child Stone" - and the perfect healer for anyone who thinks they're unloved and is the stone par excellence for healing sexual abuse. (which will help Dick after his ordeal with Goodness)
"Fire with fire" comes from Fighting Fire With Fire by Phil Rey Gibbons.
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