Chapter 126

Nobody dared voice it aloud amongst the rank and file, but everyone knew, everyone agreed. Marching to war in winter while the snow fell was a bad omen.

Troops quartered in the Garrison were ordered from their beds, soldiers and knights, paladins and warriors were told to kit themselves for war and prepare for a long march.

Battle clerics were heard shouting blessings upon the victorious as they marched up and down rank after rank of the fighting elite, and condemnation of the cowardly.

Ships, newly arrived from Rothgar, the Old Land, disgorged more and more soldiers, company commanders demanding to speak to whomever was in charge.

From the Temple of the Lily came the healers and priestesses, a book of healing incantations slung over one shoulder, packs of healing herbs, potions and bandages slung over their shoulders.

Several battered and ill-used riverboats begged entry into the harbor and were nearly sunk for their strange design and unknown sigil. All who saw this exchange were baffled- why would riverboats beg entry into a sea-harbor? It boggled the mind. No sane riverboat captain would dare take his craft into the ocean.

After a short negotiation conducted by people shouting in towers down at the people shouting from crow’s nests, they were allowed in, and the boats disgorged three hundred surly men with heavy axes, thick beards,and wolf-furred cloaks. The Duchess of Nauders was well aware of the Empire’s call to war, but while they could not send as many as they wanted because of the need for vigilance along their border, Nauders would stand with the Empire.

The applause fell into uncertain, uneasy silence as ranks of mages from the Miskatonik saddled up and rode to join them, followed closely by soldiers bearing the sigil of a pair of crossed torches.

Gangs of street toughs were hunted down and rounded up, given spears and offered a pardon for any and all crimes- provided they proved themselves in combat. Unspoken was an obvious promise that none of them would return to the city alive and any and all pardons would be issued posthumously.

As the armies marched or rode towards the northern gates of the city, waves, cheers, and applause urged them onward. The Ever-Victorious Army was marching to war once again. Aston had been attacked by the moon-worshipping heathens to the north, the Urthan, and the Empire would not let this stand.

Surrounded in limitless darkness, an infinite nothingness stretching out in every direction, Katarina sat in thought and considered her options. She had lost the thing that was chasing her.

Lost, or perhaps it had given up. It was equally possible that it was secretly lying in wait for her, but the last time it had come for her, it had done so with the lumbering ferocity of a bear- huge, loud, and very obvious.

Olivia was able to make it to the High Court meetings a few times, when her body didn’t feel like it was trying to sick up everything she’d eaten in the past twenty years. She was nervous until Gabrielle gave her a knowing laugh and passed her a cup of mulled wine with a sympathetic pat on the back. Yuriko gave her a comfortable nod. It took a little while, but Olivia eventually relaxed and remembered that both Gabrielle and Yurkio were mothers themselves.

Candidates for replacing Celeste, Phoebe, and Constance were being selected in their particular regions, but it could be months before anyone would be ready, and there was the very real possibility that they wouldn’t survive the swearing-in ritual.

Everything around her was endless black. There were no walls she could see or feel, but there at least seemed to be a sense of gravity and a floor of sorts that she could sit, lay down, or walk around on. Jumping up and down was vaguely terrifying; with everything uniformly black she couldn’t tell where the floor actually was. A hole could be right there, and then instead of sitting in infinite nothingness, she’d be falling though it.

"Too horrifying to consider." Katarina muttered to herself. Her voice was flat, echoless in this endless nothing.

From time to time she worried if she’d been cast into the eternal Void of Nothingness, but it was said that the Void of Nothingness was a pitiless freezing hell of nothing, the freezing night between the stars. Katarina was somewhat comfortable, albeit naked. She wasn’t particularly hungry or thirsty, and she didn’t feel particularly tired either.

Was she dead? It seemed likely to her. But if she were dead, why wasn’t she with her Goddess?

"Maybe the Heretic Stone interfered somehow." Katarina wondered aloud.

Olivia herself was a little worried. Maybe it was the strange cocktails of chemicals that were percolating through her bloodstream as body acclimated itself to pregnancy, but she could swear she saw people throughout the days and weeks of winter that were simply out of place.

The day when the armies were to march forth from Darnell, she swore she saw a petite woman with braided blonde hair and a wicked halberd trying to run after them, only to get yanked off her feet by a taller woman with dark hair and a face like Katarina’s. The taller woman had jerked the smaller woman off her feet by her braid.

A girl, barely a woman, naked from the waist up, casually spear-fishing off the docks and giving the catches away to any who asked.

A brawny woman, wearing the simple robes of a healer with the sleeves ripped off to show her overwhelmingly powerful physique, blindfolded, tending the children of an orphanage Olivia had visited discreetly.

A woman in full plate armor and winged helm carrying an empty scabbard.

Olivia had seen them, had an overwhelming feeling of recognition. Each of them had turned and made eye contact with her, and given her a knowing nod. Invariably there was a noise, or someone speaking to her, or something else that would divert Olivia’s attention for a moment, but when she looked back, the women were gone, all of them.

Everywhere she looked, she could see the same: Just for a moment, just for a second, someone would look up and meet Olivia’s eyes, and hold them for just a second too long, and then disappear abruptly. There was that damnable feeling of recognition, too, as if she should know who they were. It was driving her nuts.

Sensing the presence of another, she turned around and spotted another person walking towards her. He had an unfamiliar form of clothing, loose cloth pantaloons that bloused into knee-high leather boots, a shirtless vest over coal-black skin, and a headband with long, trailing tails covered in symbols she didn’t recognize. His hair was shockingly white, and when he squatted down next to her, she saw his eyes were a pale lilac.

He raised his hands and his fingers writhed in knots as he went through a sequence of expressive gestures. She stared at him blankly. He gestured at himself, made a sequence of hand signs, and then gestured at Katarina.

Ah. An introduction? That was certainly easy enough.

"My name is Katarina lon Pavlenko, Justicar Witch Hunter in service to the Golden Lady."

He gaped at her, seemingly uncomprehending.

Katarina tapped on her breastbone. "Kat-a-rina." she sounded out slowly.

The man threw his hands up in an obvious gesture of frustration, stood up, and walked around in a short circle, apparently lost in thought.

He rushed back to her in three quick steps, reached out with his hand and touched the tips of his fingers against her forehead.

Katarina instinctively and reflexively erected her antti-magic shell and he snatched his hand back with a wordless shout and stared at it in horror, clutching it tightly in his other hand, as if the offending limb was scalded.

His eyes flicked from Katarina to his hand and back again, and then he turned and bolted into the black from which he came, his footsteps disappearing into the soundless gulfs as quickly as they appeared.

"...huh." Katarina muttered thoughtfully.

Olivia tried visiting Yuriko, but Yuriko’s parenting advice was so completely different from how she herself was raised that she gave the Yamato woman an apology, and beat a hasty retreat.

It was much different with Gabrielle. The woman was a font of advice and wisdom for dealing with a pregnancy. Olivia was surprised that Gabrielle had given birth twice, and terminated several pregnancies.

"It was probably Katarina’s fault, you know." Gabrielle declared as they enjoyed a foot massage and hot wine.

"Excuse me?" Olivia asked, confused.

"The Night of Miracles." Gabrielle offered blithely.

Olivia gave her a very long and careful look. What was the woman getting at, with that statement? If an Inquisitor had heard the Lady Cardinal say that, it was quite possible that Gabrielle might find herself with an uncomfortable visit and an unpleasant end to her career.

"You’re saying Her Radiance was the cause?" Olivia asked carefully.

Gabrielle stretched languidly in her chair, and used the foot not being massaged by her butler to stroke his face. He gave her a warm smile in return, and redoubled his work.

"Hmmm." Gabrielle let out. "A child taking a pot from the stove, or perhaps a bun from the oven. He doesn’t realize it’s hot, so he juggles it from hand to hand, trying to avoid getting burned, and then he drops it." She offered. "Perhaps it was Her Radiance ... stretching her wings for the first time, as it were." She offered. "Some gifts are given with full understanding of their worth and value, but some aren’t known until long after their death."

Olivia let this theory of Gabrielle’s slide through her.

"As I recall, you didn’t reveal your dream to the Book." Olivia remembered. Gabrielle laughed in return.

"Neither did you." The voluptuous woman pointed out.

"I-" Olivia began, and then shrugged. "I just dreamed of making love with Katarina." She replied.

Gabrielle nodded. "I was making love for real." She replied indulgently.

Olivia shook her head. "Clearly I got the raw end of the deal. A dream isn’t nearly as satisfying as the real thing." She commented, and Gabrielle laughed again.

"I..." Gabrielle began, and then stopped. "Do you remember the conference?"

Olivia nodded. How could she not?

"She- Her Radiance sang to me." Gabrielle said by way of explanation. "She knew. She looked at me, through me, inside of me, and she knew."

"Knew what?" Olivia asked.

"I was pregnant." Gabrielle replied. "You speak of getting a raw deal from the Night of Miracles, but I can’t help but feel it’s better- safer- to dream... at least that night." She replied simply. "That night I got pregnant." She explained, and continued, "And Her Radiance saw it. Knew it. She sang to me a lullaby that my grandmother sang to my mother, that my mother sang to me, and that I sang to my own children." Gabrielle shook her head. "She told me I should sing it, too."

She looked to Olivia. "You’re not the only one struggling, dear." She offered. "Take my advice, if you would: Have a glass of spiced wine before bed. Eat a simple breakfast in the morning, that way if you throw it all up, you don’t miss too much. Eat a full and hearty lunch, and a sensible dinner."

Something was coming. Katarina couldn’t see it, but she could sense it in the same way she had always been able to sense the presence of people around her. Besides, whatever was coming was huge in a way that defied explanation, comprehension.

She climbed to her feet, and prepared to run. She’d been doing that a lot, lately.

Something was coming for her. Hurtling out of the black like a meteor. All her senses screamed for her to run, and she did, though in this monotonous black without limits or boundaries or definition, she could have been running in place for all she knew.

Cold, strange light bathed her from behind in shifting blues.

Katarina risked a glance over her shoulder and screamed, overbalanced and fell, sliding on the featureless ground without color or definition.

The creature defied size in description, in apprehension. It was catastrophically huge, titanically massive. The thing, revealed in the strange lights that flickered and pulsed in its eyes, could have crushed the city of Darnell by laying on it.

It was unmistakably lizardlike in appearance. In fact, it looked surprisingly similar to Marcela, her Drake. Well, if Marcella had six glowing eyes to each side of her head, and size enough that an army of a hundred thousand paladins could ride down its gullet.

The thing’s head lowered, lowered, and lowered still until its horned chin scraped the ground. The piercing blue lights from the irises of its eyes flickered and pulsed.

She could feel herself weighed, measured, assessed, and summarily examined by the monstrous intelligence that seethed behind those glowing eyes. She could feel the weight of that gigantic, terrifying will pressing down on her with all the subtlety of an entire metropolis dropping upon a single ant.

"A human? Here? Interesting."

The voice blasted her, blasted through her, the exhalation of its breath was a hurricane, lifting her up and casting her spinning, cartwheeling, tumbling through incalculable darkness.

When she hit the ground she expected and dreaded too hear the brittle wet snap of bone; the blast of pain and shards of her ribs exploding through her chest. The strange lack thereof was even more terrifying in some indistinct, abstract way.

By Sasaki’s estimate, she and Kuro had been walking for perhaps forever. Maybe as long as two of them. She wasn’t sure. Every day was the same- unrelentingly cold, and intractable, immeasurable forests that they did their best to pick through, though there were many trips, slips, and falls.

"Just head west, Sasaki." she’d told herself. Kuroyuki was helpful in pointing out the way to go, and occasionally helping hunt game for their meals, but exhaustion was a constant thing, and the cold was obnoxious.

She’d trekked through the endless forests before she’d met Katarina in that logging town of Higgenfal, but wasn’t acutely aware of how vital, how important a horse was for travel. It eliminated the need to limit what you could carry. You could travel much further. As much as she detested horses, it was obvious that the value of having one was worth giving up the unpleasant feeling of entrusting everything to one.

All it would take was one word for Kuroyuki to drag her through that strange nightmare and then they would be in Darnell, but Sasaki knew she couldn’t do it. Whatever that place was, it terrified her. The strange, whirling maze, a web of nothing, clinging to her like filth, staining her essence and soul. The whirling, giggling lights that haunted the dark places whispered in her dreams. Another trip through that would drive her mad.

She’d asked Kuroyuki to travel to Darnell, pay for two horses and then return with them, but the horses she’d returned with had dropped dead on the spot, eyes blind, horsehair completely white with shock.

Kuroyuki couldn’t explain it. Sasaki didn’t ask. She didn’t much care for the taste of horseflesh, but it served in the lean times when hunting was impossible because of the howling winds and blizzards.

Sasaki burrowed within herself. Nothing mattered except putting one foot in front of the other. Had it been a month? Two? Three? She wasn’t sure. She turned back to ask Kuroyuki and shock, numbing cold despite the freezing winds, chilled her even more. Kuroyuki wasn’t there. Sasaki hadn’t even realized when she’d gotten separated from Kuroyuki.

She took a breath, and shouted her daughter’s name.

"Kuroyuki!"

An explosion of flame, an eruption, a blast. Trees shattered and branches snapped; the shockwave blew Sasaki off her feet and sent her rolling. The intense heat squeezed her chest; breathing was difficult as the fire greedily ate up the surrounding oxygen.

Sasaki struggled through the snow, pushing against the waves of heat that pulsed out from the fire, certain that Kuroyuki was somehow responsible for the conflagration.

She pushed aside a shattered, charred trunk, and in the center of a small clearing a blazing bonfire roared with an intensity she hadn’t seen the likes of before. The ground trembled beneath her feet, the air whirled and tugged at her clothing.

She probed the clearing with her gun; would it even work in this bone-biting cold? Her sword would. She shouldered her rifle and drew her blade as she stalked around the clearing, eyes up and alert.

She circled the clearing once, twice, and could spot nothing. She turned back towards the fire and gasped when a human skull clattered out of the burning branches, flames licking from its sockets.

The crystalshe carried beneath her sarashi flared a dazzling, brilliant purple, bright enough to be seen through Sasaki’s clothes. She tugged on the thong and yanked it out.

It is the responsibility of the daughter to bring honor to her family. Kuroyuki’s voice pulsed out from the crystal. This way, you can be saved.

Sasaki trembled; she shook, she fell to her knees. The heat from the fire had thawed and dried the ground; it was as warm and as accommodating as if it had bathed in the summer sun.

She couldn’t cry. She didn’t know, she didn’t understand-

She didn’t know how long she sat there, head bowed in mourning and prayer.

The sound of horses, the whickering and neighing of the beasts, the jingle of the harness roused her.

She glanced around; three men on horseback eyed her.

"Who’re you?" one of them demanded. His sword was in his hand, though Sasaki could have cut him and his friends down before they got into range with their own blades.

"My name is Sasaki." She muttered. "I’m an Apprentice Witch Hunter returning to Darnell."

The man studied her, and then with an exaggerated flourish, he sheathed his blade.

"If you’re a Witch Hunter, show me your Writ and Warrant." He demanded, and Sasaki moved to do as she was told, slowly, robotically. What had gone through Kuroyuki’s mind? Why had she killed herself? To what end? What point, what purpose did it serve?

In Yamato, a disobedient child could be punished. A lawbreaking one would be executed. One that brought dishonor to their family could commit suicide, ritualistically cleansing the family of any perceived social sin.

Sasaki and Kuroyuki had argued from time to time, had disagreed from time to time, but she’d never embarrassed or sinned in a way that Sasaki felt impugned upon. Was it the horses? That was stupidity. A forgivable mistake. Kuroyuki couldn’t have known what the end result would have been.

"Sasaki Kjirou. Witch Hunter Apprentice.

Apprenticed to-" The man’s voice froze. He looked to Sasaki, who sat there, staring into the burning eye sockets of the skull that was crumbling away in front of her.

"You’re a very lucky woman, to be apprenticed to one such as her." The man remarked kindly, swinging down from his horse. "She’s a good woman. She helped me lay my brother to rest." He snorted. "She even offered to bring vengeance in his name." Sasaki looked up at him.

"Names’ Dillon. Ranger Dillon. Right now I’m a scout for the army."

"Army?" Sasaki asked, and he nodded, and held out a hand. "It was lucky of you to start this fire, else we wouldn’t have found you." He offered as he pulled her to her feet. "We would have passed right by you." He gave her a casual once over. "And if you don’t mind me saying so, Lady Witch Hunter, you look like you needed to be found."

"Army?" She repeated. He nodded. "We’re retaking Aston. Should be there in a week."

Sasaki blinked and frowned. She was certain they were heading in the right direction. According to Armilla it had taken only a bit more than a week to get from Norn to Alsabet’s place, the one with the house and crumbled tower. It should have taken them only a short while longer to get back.

How had they drifted off course so badly? How had she ended up so close to Aston? She was supposed to have come out of the woods just shy of Norn! From Norn it would have been a hop, skip, and a jump away from Darnell!

"Fuck!" She shouted, and Dillon stepped back from the heat in voice.

Sasaki struggled to her feet.

"Come back to our camp." Dillon urged. "We’ve got hot food, relatively good blankets, and... maybe you wouldn’t mind lending us a hand in putting down some heathen scum?"

Aftera moment, she nodded. "I think I can manage that." She agreed quietly. "If you weren’t lying about the hot food."

He laughed. "No doubt about that."

A girl was dancing and frolicking around Katarina, who didn’t even have the strength to sit up. How long had she been here? How long had she lain here like this?

"Who’re you?" Katarina asked, and the girl spun to a stop, burning embers sifting from her hair.

"Who’re you?" The girl repeated, and leaned down to peer at the Witch Hunter, who didn’t even have the strength to rise to a sitting position.

"Katarina." She replied to the pale-skinned girl with flames for hair.

"Are you a God?" The girl asked, and Katarina snorted.

"No. Not a God." Katarina replied.

"Hmmm." The girl thought, and then raised herself up on one foot and spun around, embers showering from her hair.

"Are you a God?" Katarina asked, and the girl stopped in mid-spin. She smiled down at the woman.

"What is a God?" The girl asked Katarina.

It took effort for Katarina to dredge her mind to come up with the answer, and she was so very tired.

"If a Goddess should be needed, she should be the first servant to the people, much the way a mother is to her child." Katarina replied finally.

The girl gave her a surprised look. "A very good answer. Why are you here?"

"SHE IS HERE BECAUSE SHE IS MINE."

The voice was a deep bass rumble,and Katarina trembled in fear. How long had she run from that voice? How long had it been since that massive beast had sent her flying?

"She’s definitely not yours." The girl replied, unconcerned. "She doesn’t bear your mark."

"SHE IS MINE BECAUSE I BROUGHT HER HERE."

The little girl sighed. "It’s no use arguing with them, you know. It’s like arguing with a stone."

"Probably." Katarina replied. It was hard to stay awake.

"Are you sure you’re not a God?" The girl asked.

Katarina snorted. "I am no God, nor a force of good to bring peace into the world. I am at best a sword to separate the wicked from the innocent. A shield against the worst that seeks to destroy man." She spat.

"Would you like to be free from this place?" The girl asked, and Katarina blinked slowly.

"Free?"

The girl nodded. "Mmm. Free. Not stuck here, anymore."

"Why would you free me?" Katarina asked suspiciously.

"You aren’t mine... but you aren’t his, either." the girl replied, squatting next to Katarina. Katarina frowned, closing her eyes. Girls in dresses shouldn’t squat like that.

"And?" Katarina asked. It was getting hard for her to think.

"You belong to the Others, but you’re still human." The girl replied, and then waved her hand, and a ribbon of fire followed her finger. "Sort of." the girl added.

"Huh." Katarina whispered.

"You may not remember, but we do. We remember the Original Compact. You belong to the Others," She paused, "but you’re still human. Humans have no place here. So I will send you to where you can be found."