The ancient flagstones beneath his knees were cold, the air within the great tree stale and reeking of impossible death. Alas, he'd returned to the dream. Owain sank heavily to his heels, hunched in resignation knowing the secret wind would snatch his lady's words just as it always had.
"Wain." Her eyes were open this time and she regarded him warmly, despite her clear exhaustion.
"Marika." he whispered. Already tears streamed unheeded down his cheeks. He was cursed, he must be , forced always to endure this tragic reunion every time he closed his eyes.
His queen smiled before she spoke, though how she could find reason to do so despite knowing he would be unable to heed her was unknown to him. "Thou must slay the mother of fingers, slay all her progeny. Thou must prepare to slay a god." Owain stared blankly at his queen in abject shock. Her voice! Her holy voice! It was raspy and low, but it was clear!
She began repeating herself, but Owain could not help himself from interrupting. "My queen!" He called excitedly, rushing to his feet, "I have heard your words! I will fulfill your wish! I will save you from this fate, my lady. No matter the hardship, I shall see you free of these bonds! I swear it!" He pounded a fist to his chest.
The eternal one eyes snapped wide, she was as shocked as he, "At last! Owain!" She snarled at her pierced wrists, "Oh, mine burnished one, there is yet so much I must tell thee. Heed-"
Her voice abruptly turned to a ragged scream, animalistic and echoing before it cut to complete silence despite her still moving mouth. No! No, he'd been so close! "My queen! What else must I know to save you?" His frantic cry was useless, the spear of red that pierced his lady's side lit in putrid flame as she writhed in agony. Owain grit his teeth, fie! The vision was ripped from him as swiftly as it'd appeared, to be replaced by lightless black.
He was awake once more, the weight of his newest rune yet another jagged chain wrapped tight about his heart. Where was Ranni? Where was he? He could not dawdle on his back like this! His revelation he would share just as soon as they saved Rykard. He tried to move, but found he was pinned under an immutable weight of stone. He must have been buried after he'd struck the cavern's wall! The scraping of his breath denoted broken bones. Owain was sure when his blood cooled in a few moments, the pain would turn from distant ache to definite agony.
The sentinel thrashed, but quickly realized it was of little use, it only tightened the stone's weight atop him, his armor was all that allowed him to breath at all. He spat out the blood that pooled in his mouth in helpless fury. Owain was in the midst of devising a way out when, as one, the weight was ripped from him and the total darkness was replaced by the beautiful face of his frantic wife. "Wain! Art thou hale? Thy face, tis covered in blood!"
He coughed anew from all the shale dust but nodded, "I am fine, darling. What has happened?" He palmed his hip, annoyed to realize his seal must have been knocked away from the serpent's blow.
"We must hurry! Mother has lost all sense, I think the beast sought to halt her by way of Rykard, but it has only driven her into a spiral! She is going to kill him, Wain!"
As Ranni's wind magic lifted him from his prison and she scoured him for any obvious wounds, Owain stared at the scene before him slack jawed. Mother Renalla was flinging the great serpent about like it was little more than a garden snake, hundreds upon hundreds of glintstone spells bombarded the thing even as she smashed it floor to ceiling with purpling gravity magic. She would bring down the cavern atop them! They must move quickly. "We must calm her-" His breath caught as his side twinged. "Hurry, wife! I will…catch up!" he panted.
Her worried eyes lingered on him a moment more before she flew with great speed to her mother's side. He could not hear the queen's words from this distance, but saw Ranni recoil in clear surprise. Owain desperately tried to sprint but every movement was pure suffering. Fie! He must have broken a leg as well. Mother Rennala paused her onslaught for just a moment, the serpent now laying limp before them.
Owain pushed himself through the pain, watching with rising dread as the queen gently kissed her daughter's brow. Was she having another episode? Where was- Moongrum lay collapsed at the queen's feet, head in Sellen's lap. Even the mighty Lady Lansseax was swaying groggily. He realized the danger too late, the unbearable weight of The Full Moon Queen's mania struck him with greater force than even the serpent. As his sight shuttered black, he saw mother wave a hand, saw Ranni disappear, Moongrum, even the dragon. The reaching arm before his face shrouded in white mist, and Owain knew no more.
Sellen should have known things would turn out this poorly. Rennala had been far too jittery. To others it might have appeared that all was well, but Sellen knew better. Sellen and that damned Moongrum, the tin soldier watched her with a hawkish gaze as always and it was cloying. It was an odd thing, to know that she and her long term annoyance shared the same thoughts.
They would meet eyes when the queen's voice would waver, when she tucked trembling fingers to her lap, when she tripped upon her words. Rennala of Caria did not stutter. Perhaps little Ranni and her golden pup were blind to such things by choice. Though, given the sentinel's ever tired eyes, perhaps he was simply blind. The dragon too had noticed, flicking gaze and wrinkled nose had been all the tell Sellen needed to know she was right. Rennala had been not quite hale.
The sorceress had hoped it would not matter, it was not as if the beast below presented an insurmountable threat. The difficulty lay ensconced in saving the boy within. Such an academic challenge was of a welcome kind of strenuity to a woman that had been trapped in ensorcelled shackles for so very long. She collected yet another tattered strand of Rykard's soul within her spell, eyes closed in twinned frustration and concentration. The dragon could only swat away the falling rocks for so long, the raging mana in the air was beginning to make even Sellen feel lightheaded.
How tricky of the serpent to use the boy's voice, how…well she could no longer call it cunning. Seeing how very much it had backfired for the beast. Sellen almost toppled over despite already being forced to her knees. Really Rennala, must you be such a bludgeon? With golden boy gone and the little princess scampered after him, things were not looking especially hopeful for the fallen carian prince. Rennala seemed to be arguing with Radagon of all people with part of her mind, whilst what was left was clobbering a creature apparently capable of devouring gods within an inch of its life. Sellen wound another soul strand tight with her spell.
Something cold and hard slammed into her thigh and Sellen cracked an eye in annoyance. Of course Moongrum would faint right atop her, what else had she expected?
"Witch! Reason with the queen!" The dragon roared in her mind. Sellen looked upwards at the exposed underbelly with no small amount of sullenness. Why would it fall to her?
The princess finally reappeared and it seemed that Rennala might actually be soothed, she even halted in her frenetic spell casting against the wailing snake. "Mother! Pray, calm thyself, we mustn't hurt Rykard!"
"Hush, my heart, thy father and I are only having a spirited debate. Be not afeard." Sellen watched wide eyed as her old friend kissed her daughter's brow before waving her off, "Now, take Wain and thy friend for tea, sweeting, I am sure Moongrum would be joyed to accompany thee as well."
"What? Mother, no-"
All others were sent away in swirls of sparkling mist as Sellen sighed. She was sure she would regret opening her mouth. "Rennala!" She snapped.
The queen turned, surprised to see her, "Sellen? Where is…Radagon was just here." The queen's voice was a soft murmur, her eyes clouded with returned madness. Blessedly the raging mana in the air was calming, unfortunately that also allowed the serpent to begin its rousing anew.
What to do? If Rykard was not saved, Sellen knew she could do little more than wave farewell at her freedom and her future. How to revive the prince and restore the queen? Harsh words? Should she play along? "Did you not hear him? There was a messenger! Come now, Nala, aid me in my spell craft as you promised." She kept her tone light, her smile as unstrained as possible. Truly, there was no other so skilled as she that could conjure such spectacular sorcery and entertain a spiraling loon.
"Spell craft?" The queen looked about the cavern, perplexed. Sellen had no idea what she saw, but knew it was not this living hell.
"Yes, you laggard! See you not the rouge drake afore your very eyes? Conjure once more, the chains of glintstone! This is delicate work, I'll not have you ruin it with your scatterbrain."
"Ah, aye, Sellen. Of course, a…a drake." The chains appeared once more, wrapped tight around the thrashing monster. Sellen breathed evenly, she could not afford to relax quite yet. She spent the next few perilous minutes gathering as much of the prince's soul as she could into the simulacrum she'd prepared. A massive glintshard, sufficient to hold the soul of Rennala's son for a few weeks at most, nothing so grand as her beloved primal glintstone. All the while she maintained idle small talk with the woman that had cast her away and ruined her life.
It was a bitter war in her heart, leaving her raw and angry. Why must she be forced to do this? Where was the princess? Why must she be shoved into this awful sham of her old companionship with Rennala? When the queen asked her absently if she'd finished her latest thesis, voice slow but earnest, Sellen almost began to cry.
As she braided the last of the prince's soul she could find within the glintshard, Sellen frowned. It was as she'd feared. Serpent and son had been enmeshed too long, too much had been consumed. When they transferred what she held into another body, the prince would be returned, but he would not be whole. What would be lost, she wondered as she finalized her spell. His ability to speak? His memory? His nature? This was something even she had never encountered.
Rennala was humming. Sellen recognized it as a harvest song that had been popular some six hundred years ago, if she remembered correctly. Though why she recalled that, she hadn't the faintest. The witch stood on shaking legs, tucking the glintshard into her robe, her job was done. Now, how to handle-
"Mama, it hurts!" The beast whined, words mangled and growled.
Oh.
Oh no.
Sellen could not be sure what it was that caused it, perhaps the serpent's poor imitation, perhaps the fact that it had named her 'mama', something Rykard had not done since toddlerhood; perhaps the queen had somehow willed herself sane once more.
Renalla, who had been docile, maintaining her chains in fogged demurity, underwent a rapid shift. Murky eyes cut sharp, cold and wrathful. Full lips once smiling, pulled back in a ragged snarl. The mana that had lulled to manageable levels, rushed back with such ferocity that it stole Sellen's breath.
The queen blinked once, twice, heaved a shuddering gasp as she doubled over. Painted nails raked down the porcelain skin of her cheeks, of her lithe neck. The lines of blood they left behind stark red against pale snow. The awful noise that emerged from her old friend was…unholy, it was naught but base rage, naught but instinctual wrath. The queen's lingering roar at the serpent was complete, consummate, all consuming hatred. It ripped a fearful, frantic sob from Sellen's chest. "Sellen, art thou done?" Rennala questioned hoarsely.
The witch nodded mutely, too terrified to speak, full concentration now only on maintaining consciousness.
"To name me as he would. To toy with my heart. I will unmake thee, demon, and thou shalt never rise again." The glintstone chains disappeared from the beast and it lunged forward with deadly speed. It was to no avail.
To see her old master's spell used so powerfully was oddly balming. Rennala had carried that part of Sellen with her all this time. She would have smiled if she were not so frozen in horror. The explosion of magic that tore from the queen's staff was as the breath of a malevolent god. It burned with such cold heat, flared with such intense and icy light that for a moment, Sellen saw a glimpse into the abyss her master had long mumbled in fear of.
Rennala screamed as she forced her spell to ever more preposterous heights. What god had she enslaved? Whose divine power did this woman wield? The beam grew in raggedness and ragefulness until the full line of Sellen's sight was full of naught but azur brilliance. Sellen began to weep, for what was her terror in the face of this incandescent knowledge? She could see it! At last! She could see the great current!
The Royal scepter of the carian line split, fracturing piece by piece as it dissolved in the queen's bloody grip, unable to bear the strain of this absurd spell. Rennala did not stop, only shifting the magic to skinned hands, dark ichor splashing grotesquely onto Sellen's awe-struck face. It seemed an eternity before at last the queen was done.
Rennala stood for a moment, regarding the bare muscles and sinews of her mangled arms blankly before lifting her gaze to where the serpent had once hulked. Nothing remained, not even a hint of the beast. She loosed a small, breathless laugh and spit at the charred void before her, before twirling and tumbling listlessly into Sellen's lap.
The witch caught her old friend with numb, shaking hands. She cradled the queen's willowy form to her chest, wrapping her arms about her protectively. She could not fight her own disbelieving laughter, nor the low sobs that still had yet to leave her. She did not try to stand, knowing her legs would not listen. Sellen sat, sat in wonder and fear and joy. What a champion Rennala was, what a peerless champion indeed.
Ranni took in the scene she'd been forcibly transported to incredulously. How had- even in the midst of an episode mother had managed this? She, Owain, Moongrum, and Lansseax were sat about a tea setting in one of the small gazebos of the upper garden of the Caria manor. The dragon's head lay under the small arch of the entrance, miraculously without damaging the structure. Ranni brought a disbelieving hand before her to the steaming tea kettle. Fresh tea? Ranni's robe had been replaced with the frilly nonsense her mother had oft tried to force on her in her youth. Why did the men get to stay in their armor?
Her husband groaned, slouching further in his seat at her side. The pained noise was enough to snap her from her daze, they had to return to the fight! She rushed to her feet, "Rouse thyselves! All of thee!" she yelled.
The dragon was the first to crack an eye, shifting quickly to humanoid form she began shaking Owain about the shoulders. Ranni lifted Moongrums visor to slap his cheek, the man snapping his eyes open with a shout. "Princess? What is- tea?"
"There is not time, Moongrum! We must away! Through the portal stone; I will follow soon!" She shoved the knight towards the main courtyard.
Owain had yet to stir but Lansseax straightened, eyes dark, "Tarry not, Ranni." The dragon and knight sprinted together to where Ranni knew the portal stone to be.
She fumbled Owain's helm from his head, rousing him with a small flare of cold magic. He surged to his feet with a gurgling cough, splattering the pristine tea set with blood and bringing a hand to his side with a baring of teeth. His eyes, wild and bloodshot, found her in a panic, "Starlight! What happened? Where is mother?"
Ranni squashed the terror she felt at seeing him so injured, stifled the girlish whimpering that fought to escape her. "We art not done, Wain! Come now, let us get thee healed."
Tricia met them beside the Gelmir portal, likely having been summoned by Moongrum, who paced at expeditious speed. The woman's expression of exasperated stress matched quite well with how Ranni herself was feeling. "Wain, this is hardly what I meant by 'be careful'. You are lucky Moongrum was discreet, or the manor would be in uproar right now." The perfumer chided as she healed his many wounds with as many spells.
Owain stood quickly after the fading of his friends last spell, stumbling slightly before being caught by the joint effort of healer and witch. "Forgive my disorientation, and apologies for ever burdening you with my frailty, Tricia. There is not time to waste." He shook his head, taking Ranni's hand and leading her along. She appreciated his speed, but her heart could not bear seeing him so injured again. As she watched him slip his helm on anew, she resolved herself to face whatever danger awaited them in his stead.
After piling atop the lady Lansseax to ferry across the manor town, they were met with yet more obstacles. The way gate to the serpent's lair was crowded with man-serpents. They would dare to block her path? The beast launched magma magic at them even as Ranni dashed them away with precise glintstone blades, forstalling Lansseax's breath so as not to damage the portal.
She braced herself as they rushed from the portal cave, preparing to face the beast that had stolen her brother. The group of four halted their mad dash wordlessly, stumbling to a stop at the unexpected sight before them. Almost half the cavern had turned to smooth, mirror-like stone. Steam wisped about the glassy surface with such intensity that Ranni almost did not see the two women that were sat at the center of the chamber. "Mother!" she cried, blasting past her husband's shoulder.
Mother lay half nestled in Sellen's lap, but there was too much blood! The grave witch hardly seemed to notice her, eyes wide and unseeing. "Sellen! What has happened? Is mother…"
The other woman's eyes finally blinked semi-lucid and she wet her lips several times afore speaking. "It…it was so beautiful, little Ranni. To think Renalla was the one to show me the way." The witch began to laugh dazedly. Ugh, this was no use!
Owain stopped slightly short of them to snatch what Ranni realized to be his seal from the ground before sliding to his knee at mother's front and casting several greater healing spells. "Owain?" She questioned softly. Mother would be…she would be alright.
"Her wounds are mended, but I would have Tricia see to her as soon as we return. Her sentinel began tenderly scooping mother into his arms after placing his cloak atop the shining silver of his armor. "Can you stand, Sellen?"
Sellen smiled, a dazzled child before a sky of stars, "I am mistress of the amber knowledge, golden pup."
Owain growled out a sigh, before calling to Moongrum, who had also just joined them. Ranni watched the carian knight pick up the graven traitor with an odd mix of reluctance and familiarity. Ranni narrowed her eyes suspiciously before clenching her fists at her side, now was not the moment! She beseeched the silent Lansseax for aid in carrying Owain's shield and spear. She needed answers! The sooner, the better.