A/N:…I got nothing. Enjoy the fic!
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My blood ran cold, my heartbeat stopped, my face was white and I could barely even breathe. "Your name is Sacrosanct." That phrase went through my mind like an icy dagger, freezing all my synapses into a numb stupor. And fear, cold and cruel, gripped my heart as "Sacrosanct" repeated itself through my mind, over and over again.
"How…" I breathed, clutching my chest, "Do you know, that, name?" I asked in a hushed whisper.
Sacrosanct
SacrosanctSACROSANCT!!!
"Please, please let me explain!!!" The prophet cried.
"You…you…Sacrosanct, SACROSANCT!!!" I cried, grabbing at my hair.
A cold, cruel chuckle filled the air, echoing through my mind, through their minds, from the looks on their faces, and by the truly petrified one on the prophet's face, I could tell he knew, he knew something, and he realized what that chuckle was.
"You called?" She asked in a smooth, almost amused drawl.
"It's you! Isn't it!? You're the one! You're the one they've been following!!! IT'S BEEN YOU ALL ALONG HASN'T IT!?" I screamed.
"Not entirely." She answered with amusement, "The Order of the All-Seeing Eye were closer to Wemlast than I, one or two follow Monigan more than anyone else, and I believe a fairly prominent one pays tribute to an image that more closely resembles Kagero." Again she chuckled with amusement, "But, yes, I will take the credit for these as having followed me almost directly. What, don't tell me you're surprised!" She laughed loudly, and there was fear on every face, and that included my own. "Oh Kaida, come now, you should have expected this. We are apart of you, and it isn't like a prophet can really control, nor truly interpret correctly what he Sees and Knows. Still, is that really a good enough excuse? Just because they didn't realize they weren't truly following the Empress of Time, per say, doesn't excuse their crimes against humanity, does it? Make them suffer." She told me lightly, "They deserve it, don't they? If you like, I can give you the sins of each and every one of them in detail. And you know they put that horrid mark on poor little Kassima, and oh it hurt, it was so painful for her. It reminded her of the time she spent as Mychala's little stress-reliever, as her little…weapon. What do you think they would have done to her if they knew her power? It would have been worse with them. It would have been so much worse." She crooned.
"And yet," I said in a horse voice, "You say that they were following you the entire time!" I hissed, "Why, then, should I do what you tell me to!? That's exactly what you want, isn't it!? You want me to kill them, to slaughter every last one of them!!! You planed this whole thing, didn't you!? You, you controlled what their prophets saw, you showed them your image!!! You did this on purpose! You did it, because you knew!!! You knew I would kill them!!! WHY!?" I screamed, "Why should I kill them for you!? Why create this entire order, this entire religion, if all you want is to kill them!? Is this some part of a prophesy that you know about somehow!? That there has to be some sort of mass sacrifice!? That hundreds have to die at my hand for some reason!?" I shrieked.
"Hnhnhn, Kaida, dear, you give me far too much credit. I'm flattered that you think I'm that powerful, truly I am. But you know, all I'm doing is repeating what you, yourself, were thinking in the back of your mind. All I'm doing is bringing it to the forefront. Monigan would have done the exact same." She said smoothly, amusedly.
"I'm not buying it." I hissed, "You're planning something! You manipulated King Sharamon so that I would have that sword because you wanted it!!! Why!? You're after something, you want something, but I'm not going to give it to you!!! I may not be able to stuff you into the Manor with the others, but you're not making a puppet out of me!!!" I screamed.
"Oh you are cute. Alright, if you want to suspect me of doing what you already know Zasalamel is doing, then by all means, let Zasalamel get away with his plans and keep your eyes on me. I really couldn't care less, I just like to mess with you. You and Kage both are just so amusing to toy with." She said.
I snorted, "Where's it written that two people can't be plotting the world's end at the same time!?" I demanded.
"The world's end?" And here Sacrosanct started laughing, "Ah, oh Kaida, you really do give me too much credit! Not that I'm complaining. View me as a god if you like, it's all the same to me, really. I'm not going anywhere, so you can blame me all you like. It will be interesting to see what you end up doing with your less-than satisfactory followers though." And here her voice died away, her presence fading as she continued chuckling until it disappeared.
I rounded, then, upon the cultists, all of whom were looking at me with fear, wondering what I would decide, if I would kill them, or if I would spare them just to spite the chilling voice. "Well!?" I shrieked, "You heard her!!!" I roared, "You heard the voice of your real Empress!!! You just heard the words of Sacrosanct!!! And guess what, she'd like to see me kill you all for her own amusement! For whatever it is that she intends to do!!! I am the true Empress of Time! But Sacrosanct is the one that you have been following!!! And now that you know that, are you still going to follow her, or are you going to shed all your beliefs, to tear off all those old practices, and follow me!?" I demanded, "I would prefer not to kill you, I really would, but right now I want to, because she's right!!! You do deserve it!!! Your own Empress admits you deserve to suffer for following her!!! She finds it amusing!!! So are you going to follow her, or me!?"
"Oh Empress!!!" Cried the prophet, "I beg of you, 'Be patient and forgive the ignorant their blasphemy'!!! Forgive us our ignorance, forgive us our sins, forgive us for our blindness, forgive us our blasphemy against you!!!"
The words 'forgive the ignorant our blasphemy' was repeated throughout the hall as knees touched the floor, and everyone who heard the voice, everyone who understood, those who weren't running to spread the news to others, were all falling before me, begging for mercy.
I made a deal with myself, if I could reverse the mark that had been placed on Kassima's forehead, and if I really could convert these fools to the real Empress of Time's ways, then, maybe, I would show mercy.
But right now, I was impatient, and if they didn't get their act together and release my friends and give me back Kassima, blood really would start flowing.
XD
"So, you're just going to forgive them, just like that?!" The captain of the ship the prince had been on, whose name was Yuzan demanded angrily of me. "These people slaughtered over half my crew!" He exclaimed.
"Watch your tongue fool! You are speaking to the Empress of Time, who are you to question her!?" Demanded Joklym, the prophet.
"I can excerpt my own authority, thank you." I told him coolly, and Joklym swiftly bowed low and stammered his apologies for speaking out of turn. "And no, I'm not going to forgive them just like that. Trust me, I'm still in half a mind, more than half a mind, to slaughter them all."
"At least let me kill the ones who did this to Kassima." The prince hissed, holding the sobbing child tightly and protectively to his chest.
"You probably will." I said, gently touching Kassima's shoulder, and she immediately turned around to come into my arms. I went to sit down in the throne-like chair that I'd been presented with and pried her off me so I could hold her at a better distance and unwrap the bandages around her forehead. "It's alright, it's okay. Mommy's going to fix it." I told her tenderly.
"It hurts Mommy, it hurts!" Kassima sobbed as I unwound the bandages. The mark there was swollen and red, ugly with that black ink. But I put a hand close to it, and used the Sands of Time to make it so that the mark was never there. Too bad I could only reverse time upon her physical wounds and not her mental wounds.
It disappeared, and Kassima's sobs died down, but she was still shaking. The prince came close so he could look, gently turning Kassima's forehead over so he could see and pulling back her white bangs. He smiled, "There," He said, "Mommy did fix it, it's as though it never even existed." He told her in a very gentle voice, and he took her out of my lap, apparently he'd become more than a little attached, and simply didn't want to let her go. I didn't want to give her up either, but I had stuff that I had to deal with, and it would be better that Kassima stay with the prince.
I sighed, rubbing my temples, "They're taking us to Egypt, though. Our ship's too damaged to go sailing, but they're repairing it so we don't have to arrive on this hulking monster."
"Does the size displease you?" Joklym asked nervously.
"Trust me, Joklym, the ship's stupid size is a very trivial thing for you to concern yourself over displeasing me about. I'm human, believe it or not, and little things like this are going to irk me, but an 'irk' is not enough of a reason for me to be 'displeased'. I'm not 'displeased' anyway, I am f(beep)ing furious, and unless you have some prudent information for me, the best thing for you to do right now is to keep your trap shut. That's your mouth if you needed to know!" I answered sharply.
"I still say you're going easy on them." Alzik snorted, "I mean, look at this, he's not even crying yet!" He exclaimed, jerking his thumb at Joklym, "Sure they're begging for mercy, but you're not forcing it out of them through tears of pain and agony. I say you get this Yuhalbis guy and make him sob like you did Malik. In front of everyone." He said.
"You have no idea how much I would like to do just that to every single person on this ship. Oh, right, I still need to kill Tsugara, maybe I'll do that to her first." I mused.
"This is the future queen of Babylon?" I heard one of the shipmates that had 'Proven' himself mutter to the captain.
"Yep, and guess what! You're stuck with me whether you like it or not!" I said, causing him to jump about five feet in the air and pale.
"She's only like this when she's mad enough." Aizira assured the others, "She's really a very compassionate person, the reason she's so angry is because they killed your friends. Even though she didn't know them personally, she hates these cultists for it almost as much as you do. Kaida really does consider the value of human life to be highest priority, and that's the only reason she hasn't already killed them all anyway, she doesn't want to for the simple reason that they're also human beings, but at the same time she wants to because they deserve it. And that's what's making her so ticked off." She explained.
"Thank you Dr. Aizira, I had no idea you were so good at looking into my brain! Could you look into my stomach next? I think I have a parasite in it turning all my pent up angry energy into something else that really doesn't belong there right now." I said, trying, and failing, not to smile.
"I think that would be the urge to laugh at the fact that I've been hanging around you so long I've become infected with your empathic abilities!" She answered cheerfully.
"Close! It was more that you've become infected with my slang! I think you need to go back to medical school." I answered, snickering.
A loud thunking sound told me that the furious Empress of wrath and rather homicidal intentions smiling and laughing was a bit too much for poor Joklym's heart, and he fainted dead away. "I hope he died." Orzan said contemptuously as the rest of us laughed, or at least snickered a bit nervously when it came to those who didn't know me very well.
"No, he's not dead." I said with a small sigh.
"We can fix that." Orzan said, drawing his sword.
"Tempting, but I'm afraid we still need him alive." I told him.
"But I kind of want to kill him." Orzan said with an innocent look in my direction.
Aizira gave out a loud fake gasp and drew her own sword, "You dare defy the Empress of Time!? Blasphemy! Your crime cannot go unpunished! I, Aizira the Best Friend of the Empress, doth sentence you to ten hours without being allowed to use the privy! I hope you're not thirsty!" She exclaimed.
Now everyone busted out laughing. It felt good, it seemed like the best thing to ease the severity of our situation. I could feel the knots within me release themselves through those laughs, and I, perhaps, laughed harder than was necessary because of that. They were so uncomfortable, and I hated being so angry. It hurt after a while, it really did. Rage was pointless if you couldn't focus that energy on a specific task. I needed it out of my system, and so, I realized, did everyone else. Even Kassima was giggling through the remains of her tears.
"Hey now, I'm her best friend! I was here first!" The prince exclaimed.
"What, you're not happy with being the True Love?! You have to have Best Friend too!?" Demanded Aizira incredulously. "You get to have sappy-romantic moments with her, what do I get? I get girl talk, that's right, girl talk! But if she were a man, she'd be mine!" She declared.
The half of the room who understood that joke, practically fell to the ground laughing. I was laughing so hard I had to hold my stomach, and the prince was having a hard time keeping a hold on Kassima he was laughing so hard.
"I am not sure I get the joke." Said Orzan, though he was chuckling at the reaction.
"I, pretended, to be a man so that it would be easier for me to get to India, and I wouldn't be so much of a target. And, for a while, they honestly thought I was a man! I'm not sure when it was, but I told Aizira I was a woman first, and then we played this mean trick on Alzik and his brother. Oh it was hilarious! You should have heard him!!! 'Amon! Get your filthy hands off my sister!!!'"
Far from being amused by this, however, Orzan's face lost its blood, and his sword dropped from his hand. Even the captain and his crew hissed in their breaths at this, and for a moment, I couldn't understand what was going on. But I sobered up immediately and frowned at them, though the others were still laughing, not realizing what these words seemed to have triggered. "Amon…" Repeated Orzan, "You, you are Amon? I mean, you were Amon?" He asked, breathlessly.
I frowned, "Maybe, I just came up with the name off the top of my head when I left…why? Do you know of a man by that name? Do you think you know me by that name?" I asked.
"Amon…Amon is the name of a Dark Summoner that many of the guard were told to go out and kill before we left." Said the Captain, staring at me, "A man so evil, he was able to summon the incarnation of Temptation itself. Are you that man, Empress of Time?" He asked coolly.
My grip on the arm of the chair tightened, "Who…" I murmured, "Who gave the order, who told the guard to seek this 'man' out? Who told them about 'his' summon?" I asked in a low voice, at the edge of my seat.
"The duke." Orzan told me for him. And my fist slammed down on the chair and I stood up in a rage.
"What does that mean?" Asked the prince, his eyes wide.
"What does it mean!? It means he's been getting information from Zervan! He's in league with Zervan himself!!!" I exclaimed furiously.
"But how?" Asked Orzan, "How could they be in contact when they're so far apart?" He questioned.
"Kolhak!" I cried. "He's a 'dark summoner', he was able to teleport! He delivered a message from Zervan to Malik, I heard him, I saw him, I fought him!!! Only he would have known about Kagero! But I thought we put a curse on him to make sure he couldn't inform Zervan…he must have found a way around it, must have told the duke and then he wrote it down so that Kolhak could send the message to Zervan without triggering the curse, because that would mean that he, specifically, did not tell him. But the duke! I don't believe this!!! That b(beep) not only plants the Dagger of Time on the prince, but puts a bounty on my head!? I'll KILL him!!!" I exclaimed.
"We have members of our order in Persia, Empress, skilled assassins who would perform the act in an instant, especially if they knew it was an order from you." Said Yuhalbis's voice at the door.
"No! I want the satisfaction of killing him myself!" I snapped back, "And you might want to come in and get your prophet, he's unconscious!" Yuhalbis didn't need telling twice. He scurried swiftly into the room, picked up Joklym as quickly as he could, and hurried back out again in one fluid motion, closing the door behind him.
"I don't think it would be wise to do that just now. It might implicate the prince, since it was the duke who accused him of stealing the dagger in the first place." Orzan told me.
"Well we're not doing anything 'just now'." I grumbled settling back down on the chair. "Did you say that most of the more important individuals in Egypt were almost definitely of these cults?" I asked Orzan, who nodded grimly.
"Not from this one, I'm sure. Else Egypt would likely be in ruin." He told me.
"One of the other sects holds Egypt fairly tightly beneath the view of the public eye. The Black Rose Circle." Said Yuhalbis from the door, "If I may be so bold…from a glance I believe their mark bears a striking resemblance to the one upon your shoulder, Empress."
"It does kind of look like a rose." The prince observed and I looked down at it. Yeah, it did look like a rose, a rose with a sort of circle around it, the circle was actually drawn with two lines which had breaks on the left and right, like it was an arm-band, except that the bottom one sort of curved downward on one side and the other joined its brother to continue the mark down my back.
"Great, I wonder which sect has this little baby right here." I said, pointing to the crest on my belly button. "Or the other two characters on my back." I added.
"What?" The prince asked.
"Oh, this sect, the Iron Snake Order, uses this middle character as their 'crest'." I told him, getting up and turning around and pulling my hair over my shoulder so the others could see that it was there.
"Remember when I told you the Order of the All-Seeing Eye said that your markings tell of the order of the universe? You said that was true." Farah told me.
"It is." I answered. "Remember that sword that Egypt gave to Persia as a peace offering?" I asked Orzan and the prince, both of whom nodded.
"Hard to forget." Answered the prince in a dark, brooding voice.
"The same language that was written on that blade telling me of its true nature is on my back, only the symbols here are flipped so that you could only read them properly with a mirror. The middle one is the character for 'Hametsu', or rather, for 'Destruction'." I explained. "What they didn't catch was the first and third characters." I then turned around again so I could point to the characters like I had Yuhalbis and Tsugara. "Creation, Destruction, and Harmony." I told them, and then I turned around. "That's how the cosmos works." I said, and then, form memory of what Sacrosanct once told me, I recited, "'Creation is the first. From creation there came life, there came worlds, people, and beings, it brought forth happiness, joy, and love. From destruction there came devastation, suffering, and blight upon the lands, filling the people with fear, sorrow, and hatred. From harmony there came death, a peaceful rest after the imbalance between creation and destruction. It is a combination of both, and devoid of either. These three are the cosmic spectrums which govern all worlds.'" I turned back around and smirked at Farah, "Good enough for you?" She nodded.
"It seems odd that they would pick that character as their crest…" Murmured Orzan.
"A coincidence, seeing as that is the side of the spectrum they seem most affiliated with. But is it a coincidence?" I asked, broodingly.
"What do you mean?" Asked Alzik, frowning.
"I have reason to believe that one of them has actually been interfering with all this, perhaps controlling what the prophets of these cultists See and Know, and even how they interpret their findings. That certain one has actually informed me that the different cults worship images that are closer to some of them than to me." I said, looking at my side significantly.
"Who is this one?" Asked the captain suspiciously.
"Nothing you need to know about." Orzan informed him sternly, "Perhaps you should leave the room, the less you are involved with this the better you'll think, trust me." He said.
Neither the captain nor his crew argued this, and they made their way out the door. "Make sure they get decent lodgings!" I ordered.
"Yes Empress, of course Empress!" Yuhalbis responded promptly, closing the door behind the men and shouting orders.
I settled back into the chair with a heavy sigh, and Kassima climbed up into my lap and snuggled up against me. I smiled, suddenly feeling a sort of contentment steeling over me, and I held her close, petting her hair gently. "I don't think she should be listening either, really." The prince said, frowning.
"She's just fine." I told him. "Kassima, have you heard anything that the grown ups have been saying?" I asked her sweetly.
Kassima's eyes went round with childish innocence as she said, "The grown ups have been talking?" As though this came as a surprise.
"See?" I said, smirking up at the prince, who still looked disapproving. "Besides, I'd rather she be here listening to us talk than out there with the cultists." I said darkly.
"She's fine." Aizira assured the prince as the lessened crowd in the room allowed the others to gather closer around the chair, or 'throne' as it was meant to be. "Kassima's a lot older in mind than she is in appearance, not a whole lot is going to upset her." She said.
"I know Mommy and Daddy will keep me safe!" Kassima said, "Mommy, I knew you didn't want them to know, so I didn't tell them you were the Empress! I just told them that they would regret hurting me because you would get mad and you would come for me!" She told me cheerfully.
"That's right." I said, kissing Kassima on the forehead, "If anyone messes with my baby girl there's gonna be hell to pay!" I said in a baby voice. "Because Mommy's not a docile woman, oh no! Mommy will rip out their throats if they touch my little Kassima!" The next moment the child was swiped out of my lap by a very irate Prince.
"You really need to work on your baby-talking skills!" He exclaimed angrily.
"What baby-talking skills?" I asked.
"You don't say things like that to a 5-year-old!!!" He yelled.
"I'm going to have to side with him on this one, Kaida. You're not really setting a very good example for Kassima." Aizira pointed out.
"What, you don't want Kassima to grow up like her mommy?" I asked innocently.
"If that means she's going to make all her suitors cry then no! Not really!" The prince told me.
We all just started laughing.
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Rhea: Once again, don't have time for an FAQ, but I do want to say this: WAAAAAAAAAAHHH, I LOVE YOU GUYS!!! I got so many reviews last chapter, I feel so loved!!! And Kiri did make a good point in her review. Perhaps an update every two days is a bit too few for a plot this complex, she says when it was one a day it was easier to keep up with the story. Well, let me assure you that, eventually, I will go back to an update a day, I just don't know when. Still, this story's getting to the point where I need to really make sure that I remember all the finer points, and that may include going back to re-read some chapters just to be sure I'm not leaving any holes open. Speaking of which, if anyone finds a hole, please tell me! I know some of them are there on purpose and will be explained later, but I want to make sure I have all my bases covered.
Thanks so much for your support, keep it coming!!! XD
Ja