Moriari
Chapter 12
A/N: So the plotting begins…all I have to say is, it's always darkest before dawn. And don't worry, Darien and Serena will be reunited sooner than you think. As always, please review.
The fog was dense at her feet, cloudy winds and morning dew swirling around her toes as she trudged through the grass, the yellow hue of early morning leading her path. It was just before dawn when she left the sleeping city behind and began her trek to the edges of the town. She tugged on the hood of her cloak, the snow colored lace rubbing against her cheek. In the distance she could see the small hut, black letters scrawled into the hutch of the house, smoke from the hatch painting the sky a murky grey. Serena pulled tighter on the cloak, the morning air blowing gently against her person as she reached for the door and knocked once, twice, three times.
She strained her ear against the silence, listening as padded footsteps neared the door and stopped. She looked down waiting for the door to move, and when it did, she almost recoiled from the force at which the barrier was pulled open. Towering above her were the stormy brown eyes of a woman in her late twenties, who with one hand was grasping her tattered tunic around her taut body; the other was clutching a bejeweled sword.
The brunette surveyed her for a moment, her eyes falling from her face to the small bump of her belly and back to her eyes again. "I wondered when you would show up. Mina said I should wait for you. It's been nearly a month," she said, grabbing the smaller woman by the wrist and pulling her into the small hut.
The door shut with a thud behind her and Serena coughed as the smell of burning wood and metal pervaded her sense of smell. "What took you so long?" asked the brunette, tossing her long plait behind her head and resting the sword against a nearby wall.
Serena sighed loudly. "I didn't expect it to be so difficult to get rid of my guards. I had to wait for Ami to prepare a sleeping potion to put into their flasks."
Lita laughed. "Mina distract them for you?"
Serena nodded. "She can be quite…distracting."
"The guards can only move by night, it should have been easy for you to rid yourself of them quickly."
The blonde smiled grimly. "Just because they walk by night does not mean they do no watch me during daylight. They must be covered by the shadow of darkness. But they do not always sleep during the day."
The brunette looked thoughtful. "I'm Lita, by the way." She thrust out her hand; it was covered in black soot. Serena smiled brightly before returning the gesture. "So tell me, why exactly are you so eager to visit Nehelania? She's not very keen on company, you know."
"I've heard. Ami thinks this is a horrible idea."
"You tend to do silly things when you're desperate." Lita shrugged."I'm sure the hormones aren't exactly helping you think rationally."
Serena frowned. "I am thinking quite rationally," she snapped. "I didn't come here for you to judge me."
Lita quickly held her hands up in surrender. "Calm down, blondie. No one's judging anybody, 'specially not me." The brunette paused. "Getting out of the city isn't going to be easy and to tell you the truth, I don't quite know where Nehelania lives, or even if she's still alive."
"Why wouldn't she be alive?" Serena asked, perturbed. She wasn't sure if she liked this Lita. Mina had warned her that the woman was rough around the edges, but she didn't mention that she was giant, sarcastic and a bit scary.
Lita chuckled. "She's got to be nearing what, ninety-five, one hundred years old? She arrived on this planet long before more than one sun emerged. Funny thing is, were not even sure if she's from Earth. There's so much myth and legend surrounding her name, nobody actually knows where she came from."
Serena shrugged. "I don't care where she's from. I just want her help."
The brunette frowned. "Her help comes with a price. Nothing comes for free you know, Serena. Are you willing to pay her high price for revenge?"
"And what will she ask of me? My life? That is already forfeit Lita, as you well know. I didn't come here asking for your advice. I just need you to help me out of the city."
"Why should I?"
"Because I will do whatever it takes to overthrow this kingdom, and give every human the freedom she deserves."
"Even at the price of your soul, Serena?" Lita watched as the blonde hesitated then nodded fervently. The older woman sighed. "Fine, then. There is secret passage beneath the seat of the high council. It will lead you into the heart of the forest. It is said that Nehelania used to live in a small cave beneath a withering Oak, somewhere south of here. The forest is full of beasts, Serena, I would not go in there alone if I were you."
"I appreciate your concern," Serena said raising her hand to the brunette. "But I am quite capable of taking care of myself." Instantly her fingers sparked a blue flame that danced against the fingertips of her hand before engulfing her arm in blue light. Lita could feel the heat of the magical fire against her breast even from the distance she was standing. Quickly Serena closed her hand into a fist, extinguishing the flame until it was nothing but a willowy wisp of smoke.
"I have never seen a Heretic produce power that was so…tangible."
Serena smirked before tapping her belly. "This pregnancy has changed me in more ways than you can imagine. These powers within me, they grow stronger every day."
Excitement danced behind Lita's honey colored eyes. "Then perhaps you are the savior we have been looking for. Come back tomorrow, at the same time. I will escort you to the chamber myself."
The blonde smiled happily before hooding her head with the cloak, her hair almost as white as the pristine material. Lita watched as she readied herself to leave and finally stepped forward towards her sword, grabbed the gilded weapon and led her fellow human toward the door.
"Serena," she said, grabbing the girls arm and waiting until the blonde turned to face her. "Be prepared, tonight there will be bloodshed."
The younger woman nodded, her face stoic yet resolute. "I am ready."
"Did you go to her today, Raye?" asked Darien, looking up from the sallow parchment, tired eyes squinting despite the darkness of the room.
"Yes," Raye said, placing the basket of herbs and jam that she had taken for the blonde down onto the empty table. "And she was not there."
He shot her a questioning look. "How long did you wait?"
"Nearly an hour," said Raye, resting against the red velvet chaise lounge, her bottom sinking into the soft fabric comfortably. The brunette sat quietly, staring at her brother with hidden suspicion. "So I trust you have not heard about what happened to Serena's guards."
He frowned and leaned back into his chair, the crackling of the fire in the grate loud in the silent room. "No, I haven't."
"Word is, several humans found a group of men, brandishing the king's shield, incapacitated behind the porch of their quarters this morning. In fact, I heard the humans speaking about how they saw a young woman with long blonde hair approach the men shortly before sunrise, a basket of flowers in her hand. Shortly after, the men fell asleep and have not yet woken."
"Were they caught in the light?" Darien asked, panic laced in his voice.
She shook her head. "No, the awning of the porch protected them from direct sunlight. For now. Hopefully they will wake by morning, or the position of the suns may change and kill them."
"You left them there?" he asked, his voice rising. "Raye they could be kille-"
"Darien they are already as good as dead. Your love for her has blinded you, my brother. The humans know there are guards hiding in secrecy in the village near the human prisoner who is with child. What suspicious would have arisen, if I, the crowned princess, ran to the rescue of these men." She paused. "Darien this will not stay secret forever. I fear for you, for her, for everyone involved. She is plotting something."
"Plotting?" He turned his head away. "What could she possibly be plotting? She is in a foreign world and nearly five months pregnant, Raye."
"She is also angry, Darien," she said, raising from the couch and walking toward him. "There is a strange glimmer in her eye. She is desperate and full of hatred…I cannot say exactly why but I cannot shake the feeling that something terrible is coming upon us."
The young King looked away from his sister, his mind aching from deep thought, from inner turmoil. The thought that she was planning and plotting against him, it hurt his heart in a way that he would never forget. Could he truly blame her for her actions? No. She had every right to want to hurt him…their…her child was going to face execution soon enough because of his lust for her. Part of him however, refused to find truth in Raye's words. Despite her anger, deep down inside, he knew she loved him.
"What will you do about this?"
His expression was blank. "I will sit back and do nothing."
Raye frowned, her lips parting. "Fine, then you will sit back and watch your city fall to ruins."
Lita gasped, her hand shaking as hot blood dripped from the hilt of her sword onto her hands, coating her wrist in a warm stew of life blood and punctured innards. Quickly she pulled the sword from the corpse, raised it above her and sliced the head of the sputtering victim clean off his body.
Serena gasped, covering her mouth as the head of the fallen soldier tumbled to a spot beneath her, wide, dead eyes still full of shock and torturous anguish.
"Don't look surprised," said Lita, staring at the younger woman. "I told you there would be bloodshed tonight. All in the name of your little revolution."
Serena licked her lips, trying to remind herself that even though these Moriarians looked like men, their meat suit only hid the demon that lay beneath the flesh. "We must continue."
Lita turned to her and nodded before wiping the sword on the hem of her tunic and tucking it into the holster at her side.
The blonde surveyed the cadaver for a moment before stepping over the body, already stiff from the swift beginnings of rigor mortis, and followed the brunette down the dimly lit hallway. There was a moment of silence, of Serena digging into the recesses of her mind as they stepped in pace, listening for the sound of bodies about, zeroing in on the waves of their minds with her gifts. They were a deadly duo together, her and Lita, wild with fury, alert with awareness. Just as Serena could sense the Moriarians and strike before they could even sense her presence, Lita was strong and swift with her blade, the steel strength of judgment tearing through their flesh as though it were as weak and frail as dried stems of wheat.
They had been traveling like this, the two of them, for nearly half an hour. Almost a dozen corpses later, they were standing in the circular court room, the looming, empty chair of the high council resting haughtily above them.
"Round the tables, hidden beneath a rug you will find a door. I'm sure with your gifts it will be easy for you to manipulate the lock. Enter in and continue until you're emptied into the forest. From this point on, you are on your own."
Serena nodded. "How did you know about this secret passage, Lita?"
"I supply the soldiers with their weapons," Lita said, handing the gilded sword to the blonde who studied it carefully. "I hear things while I'm among them. This is a soldier's blade, carved from the finest steel made in the metal yard. It was given to me illegally through a common friend. It has the carvings of a warrior upon it. The fringe upon the blade causes the skin to peel and cauterize upon on impact, a signature wound of the warriors. It is the reason why I used this sword tonight."
"It is the mark of a soldier. You want them to believe this massacre was done by their own hand?"
Lita smiled. "It will distract them for a while. Humans are not able to wield such magnificence and cannot get access to the metal yard. They will investigate treason within their own ranks-"
"And by the time they find the truth I will have succeeded."
Lita smirked. "Don't be so sure of yourself. This is all contingent upon Nehelania actually existing."
"She does exist. And I will find her," she said, resting her hand against the metal lock and infusing it with power until it shattered. She pulled the door open and peered down over the winding staircase. She took one last glance at Lita before stepping into the dark cavern and closing the door behind her.
The brunette sighed loudly, staring at the chair of the high council before turning to leave.
God speed, Serena. You are the only one who can set us free.
She could hear howling in the distance, a painful yelping, a ferocious growl. She rested a steady hand against her belly, the other tightened around the black hood of her cloak as she walked deeper into the confines of the tree ridden forest. Sunlight was pouring through the trees, illuminating remaining footprints of bovine and lupine creature upon the ground, staining the crushed velvet of her cloak a woodsy green. The air was thick with pine and the crunching and rustling leaves played a distant melody as she walked deeper into the woods.
She made a left at a large tree, ridden with bird's nests and buzzing hornets and made a right at a large clearing in the ground. Her feet seemed to be leading themselves as she took a careful path through the foliage. Nehelania was alive; somehow she could feel her, guiding her footsteps through the narrow openings in the ground that was thick with a blanket of multicolored leaves. She continued walking quietly, enjoying the calm Serenity of nature around her. The breeze was blowing her direction, the tree limbs bending and guiding her, moss recoiling as something cleared the path beneath her.
Blinking slowly she stopped at the sight before, her eyes falling onto the wretched Oak tree, withered with age and black with smoke that sat perched precariously just above the mouth of the cave. The fissure itself was bereft with dead moss and the ground beneath it was littered with what Serena mused to be animal bones. Resolutely she pressed on, trudging into the cave, gasping as the cover of darkness neared as the mouth of the cave swallowed her body whole.
Her feet crunched against the ground, hard calcium breaking and twisting beneath her boots. There were strange carvings on the wall, images, figurines, stars…the grotto was mostly dark except for the small amount of light being released by the flickering torches that were tilted against the stone walls. She walked deeper into the cavern, the air becoming thick with musk and the smell of decay, hot with raw earth and age. She brought the sleeve of her cloak to her nose, attempting to block the putrid smell from dizzying her mind.
Slowly the pathway emptied her into a large stone room which served as a glorious atrium filled with nothing other mirrors…mirrors and glass for miles…gilded mirrors, broken reflection pools, glass surfaces. They reflected the light in the eeriest of ways. An unyielding glow bathing the room in fluorescent light. Serena moved to edge deeper into the room, when the feeling of a gnarled hand grabbed at her neck and spun her around with excessive force.
Her mouth opened in horror as her eyes met the droopy, watering, dark blue almost purple eyes of her counterpart. Her body leaned and backed away from the figure that looked at her humorously, her toothless grin even more frightening with the lights that bounced off her body.
Serena thought that this woman might have been beautiful once upon a time, before hatred and age marred her face, but now she looked like a vicious demon, hands out and eyes wide as she stared at her. Her skin was grey and sunken, deep etches of peeled flesh splashed randomly across her face. Splotches of dark bruises marred her wrists and the bones of her ribs protruded from her chest so profoundly that the confines of her tattered gown clung more to her bones than her curves.
The woman didn't move, only watched as the blonde continued backing away until she found herself resting against a floor length mirror. Her hands gripped the glass as her feet pressed her further into the smooth surface.
"I've been waiting for you." Her voice was deep and raspy, the sound itself was enough to make Serena want to wretch. It was piercing and painful.
"You don't know who I am."
The woman smiled another toothless grin. "Don't I? I know as much about you as you know of me. As you have been searching for me, I have been calling to you. What do you think led you to place that no others can find? Did you think that coincidence? Providence? You of all people should know that nothing happens here by chance, not the new relationship between your friends, or the little girl growing, wriggling in your womb. I have dreamt of you, girl. For you shall be my revenge."
Serena stiffened. "Your revenge." Her eyes narrowed, bravery finally finding her. "How can I avenge you when I cannot avenge myself?" She paused. "Are you the woman I have been looking for? The sorceress named Nehelania?"
"I am she. And I am no sorceress, child. I am just like you, bereft with hatred and anger, years of solace and torture riding me like a whore rides a courtier."
"We are nothing alike."
Nehelania smirked. "Maybe not yet, but you will be. Sooner than you think."
"How so?" asked Serena, her eyes following the languid movements of the woman that was moving slothfully toward a golden desk covered in a velvet cloth.
"We all sin, child. But there are some sins, that tear and rip the soul, until the spirit is no more, until it is charred and violated, until guilt and anger have raped you raw. Until there is nothing else but a shell of cause and consequence, of right and reason." She fingered the cloth on the table. "If you do what must be done, out of vengeance and spite, you will surely become a monster. Can you do what must be done? For the greater good?"
The young mother thought quietly, looking down to her protruding belly. "As your King has made a choice to bury me in the woods and forsake the life that we have created, I have chosen to bear this burden of revenge upon myself. I will do whatever you ask me to do."
"Whatever I ask?"
Serena's eyes narrowed. "Whatever you ask that will punish those who have wronged me, Tiberius, Dante, Nicolae, Jayeden, and Joshua, and the council, those who have hunted humans like cattle, those who have ripped through human flesh."
"And what about your precious King?"
"He is the problem, not the solution."
"Are you so sure?"
"I have not been convinced otherwise."
"Sometimes my dear, agony of the mind can be far more painful than physical hurt. Have you considered that you may not be the only one who is troubled by all of this?"
"Troubled by his own actions, beaten down by his own guilt. I have no remorse for him. It was our choices that brought us here and his decision to embrace cowardice instead of bearing arms to fight for our child that has brought me here, with you."
Nehelania smiled sadly. She had given the girl a choice, and now she would have to deal with its consequence. A decision such as this could not be her doing. Even in cunning and deception there were rules and the old woman had lived long enough to know to follow them. "Good, child, them come and see what gifts I have for you."
Serena neared the woman carefully her eyes widening as the she pulled the cover off the table, revealing a dagger, a vial and a bag full of white powder.
"This is what you offer me? These are the tools of the great Nehelania…a knife, a tube and fairy dust."
"Fairy dust that blinds your enemy, a dagger forged long ago, carved into it a poison so rich that it binds even the most powerful Moriarian into a physical state of paralysis, and vial controlled by the mind of its bearer that can be hidden and brought to fruition at will. This is not child's play; they are ancient gifts from an ancient time. And they are my gift to you."
Serena paused. "There is only one dagger, meant for one person. I want them all to fear the way we humans have feared, to feel hunger, to feel fatigue, to feel as weak and helpless as I do now."
"But you do not wish to kill them." Serena shook her head.
"So there is still some light in your soul. Trust me my dear, when you have suffered through the agony of labor only for your child to be torn from tired hands, when you have heard the screams of your infant as they poke and prod her until her skin is no more, until you have smelled the odor of her burnt flesh, you will wish them dead. Have you not wondered how they will kill your baby?" asked Nehelania, her eyes innocent. "Purity by fire, child. They will burn your baby alive. And your humans will continue to suffer, to be born into slavery, to die in slavery. You can stop this. You must make a choice."
"What must I do?"
"Find your King, blind him with the dust, thrust the dagger just below where his heart would be. And bleed him," she said simply, letting the dagger rest idly within her hand. "Bleed him until the vile is full. And keep it until your child is born. Do not open it, do not flaunt it, hide it within you until the time is right." The woman stepped forward and pressed the vial into her hands. Serena gasped as the stone carvings burned upon her flesh and disappeared. "This magic is a part of you now. You will know what to do when the time comes."
"And how will I get to him?" Serena asked, looking at the vile and dagger that rested in each hand.
"My dear," Nehelania said, "he will come to you."
Tell me what you think.