Chapter 13 - Last Words

A dull throbbing roar built in the passage, the echo mimicking the wind that thrashed against the cliffs of the mountains. Within the bounds of the ebon gate that marked the passage between the Real and the bounded pocket of the Shadow Realm walked two Rakshasa, women both. Time bent as the magic of the stone and its position within the mountain allowed an overlap, a weakness in the boundaries where passage by those not inclined was tolerated. Winter watched their approach, her eyes narrowing as she kept a close watch on the troubled Empress of the Ke’Shasan. The Empress whose leadership was in question with the turn of the fates, the pass and wait before she would be restored and in turn the other seven.

She could hear the faint snarl under the rumble of the gate. A breath drawn through clenched teeth. The fury held in check, now ready to be released. Her eyes slipped to Ja’Sessh, his large hands already in motion as Ja’Freya’s breath of anger sharpened, her arms sliding back around him and pushing off as she exploded into motion. A faint smile twisted Winter’s lips as time slowed in her sight. Ja’Sessh’s large muscular form twisting, rippling under his rust-splashed fur. Ja’Freya’s tight and rapid frame already in motion, her legs tempering, shadows being drawn to her as she threw herself forward. The Empress firmly in her sight.

Mathilde’s query, dismissed as quickly as it came to her mind and thoughts, her eyes watching Ja’Freya’s anger playing out. Her violent movements, smooth and purposeful as she twisted away from Ja’Sessh’s reach, his hands closing on empty air. Her tail whipping behind her, the echoing clink of the steel bands balancing her accelerating motion. The gleam of bared teeth and the sharp golden glare of her eyes trailing her movements in the low light. Ears slicked back as she shot forward, Ja’Sessh reaching further with his large arms but falling short.

A small smile danced on her lips as lithely as Ja’Freya danced from Ja’Sessh’s grasp. The rakshasa’s powerful strides lengthening as she threw herself into the field of the gate, her momentum slowing, her arm outstretched and hooking Ja’Ekavira. Winter’s sharp eyes flicked to Ja’Alexa, the unsurprised posture, the slow slip of her hand to the leaf blade at her belt and the silvery turquoise flash as her gaze levelled on the Empress. Ja’Freya’s arm clamped around the Empress’s neck, tightening and lifting until she was on her toes, scratching desperately at Ja’Freya’s forearm with clawless fingers.

Ja’Freya snarled in the Empress’s ear, glancing past at Ja’Alexa and her silent nod, “I know this is why you hid in the temple, why over the past years you have not even deigned to step more than a foot outside the bounds of its stone floors. You were well aware that it protected you from my fury.” she hissed through her teeth, “I am the only one you can’t control.”

She twisted her arm, forcing the Empress to struggle as she clamped her neck tighter. Turning slightly, she looked at Ja’Sessh with golden eyes flashing as he entered the field and the sweep of Ja’Alexa’s warning hand for him to come no closer.

Ja’Freya let her lips touch the edge of the Empress’s ear, making it flick, “As much as I would love to gut you with my blade or tear your throat out with my own teeth, it would only be for my own, momentary satisfaction. Instead I have words I have to say before you become who you were supposed to be, I have to say them this moment, when you are helpless, but before you can feel our saviour’s draw.” she said, her breath disturbing the fine hairs surrounding the Empress’s ear, “I can not stay silent, it has been eating me alive as you used the sanctuary of the temple to keep me quiet. Something I can be no longer. You kept us apart; you put a wall between us.”

Ja’Ekavira winced, her hands pulling at Ja’Freya’s arm unsuccessfully, “You never learned to keep your hands to yourself, Freya. He is your brother.” she gasped with wide eyes.

Ja’Freya chuckled darkly, tightening her grip even further until Ja’Ekavira started to choke, “Brother? And yet you say to the people that he is your ‘Consort’? We were made, Empress, not birthed. He is as much my brother as Winter, a demoness, is my sister. You did not just domesticate him to keep him in control, but to keep me tame too. You decided that we were all siblings, I know I did not.”

Ja’Alexa stared at the Empress, the realisation of Ja’Freya’s actions simmering in her thoughts, “She decided that we were siblings…It was always her decision.”

Ja’Freya’s lips drew back angrily, “Remember, she decided it to be so when we had to live in among the Ke’Shasan. When we hid in Dearil and Kieleanna’s den. Let me ask, how did you feel when you had to watch…?”

“Don’t say his name…” Ja’Alexa said quietly with a pained expression.

“How did it feel when she decided that you had to watch him lose his mind? It broke you, made you compliant to see him being used.” Ja’Freya’s eyes flared, “Made you fear her, fear for yourself, lest she enslaved you. I know you still go to his rooms and watch him from a distance.” she said softly to Ja’Alexa, watching her bite down her anger.

“Empress…Can you still remember their names?” she whispered aggressively into the Empress’s ear, “Our other three ‘sisters’, those you subject to the continued birthing, locked in their ‘cells’ under the temple, being forced to mate with drugged men of the Ke’Shasan in the hope of birthing new males.”

She tightened her grasp even further as Ja’Ekavira struggled to speak, “No Empress, I have not finished yet. You got in their heads, you made them enjoy it, made it their purpose. Once, it was a request they gladly sacrificed in service to the great image of a fledgling race that you sold to us at the behest of the Host. Now you have enslaved them to it without their consent.”

She twisted the Empress’s head and whispered directly into her ear as her golden eyes settled on Ja’Sessh, “When you took Sessh away from me, you used the silent threat that you would do the same to him as you did to our other ‘brother’, have him rut mindlessly with any female you bring to his door, elf or of the Ke’Shasan. And in a fashion, you did and all I could do was watch.”

“You know what angers me most of all.” Ja’Freya snarled, “It is the Host’s bastardry that guides your actions, I can’t even be angry at the real you, you are just a twisted fragment of who you really are, an agent of his will. So this is my last chance before you go off to become who you were meant to be. And by the gods, I hope it is something that can be respected, something more than this vile shadow of a woman we have had to bow and grovel to.”

“I do not want your empty promises that can not be kept, nor do I want to hear your words or your answers. What I ask are questions for you to ponder in the dark.” she said quietly, “Will they still have a mind left worth saving? Will you listen to their screams in the dead of night, Empress? Will you grant them mercy from the horrors of what your past self demanded of them? Will you be able to look into their eyes and make peace with yourself and your decisions when you look back on what the shadow of yourself has done?”

Ja’Freya glanced at Ja’Alexa, her brows bunching angrily as she saw the other woman’s pain, “Do you have the strength to wield the blade that will silence their cries, Empress? To put them out of their misery?” she whispered into Ja’Ekavira’s ear.

A sudden clatter and ringing chime of steel rang out over the roar of the gate, a leaf-bladed dagger skittering to a stop at their feet. Ja’Freya’s eyes quickly flicking back to Ja’Sessh as he held Ja’Alexa’s at the wrist, her hand poised close to the Empress’s stomach and still in the grip that had held the blade. She watched as his large hand twisted Ja’Alexa’s arm back, forcing her to grit her teeth as she silently stared the Empress down, her turquoise eyes filled with fury. Ja’Freya could not make out his words as he spoke quietly into Ja’Alexa’s ear, just that she was allowing herself to be guided away, her eyes burning angrily before she suddenly struggled, pulling her hand free and spat at the Empress’s feet.

“We all bear your scars; there is not one of us that you have not hurt, Empress… Farewell, Ja’Ekavira, puppet of the Host.” Ja’Freya said, pushing Ja’Ekavira forward, her toes barely scraping the ground as she struggled to breathe.

The dull throbbing slowly receding as they walked forward. Winter watched calmly, a small smile on her lips as she had seen the anger, the fiery rage of the rakshasa women. She did not need to know the words that had passed between them. The collapse of Ja’Ekavira’s control was inevitable, no longer backed by the Host with its tentative grasp fragile and failing, cracking like glass the further she pressed from the safety of the temple. Her eyes narrowed as the gate calmed further, scrutinising Ja’Ekavira as she was pushed along, her head falling limp.

She could feel the fluctuation in her bond with their master, the ripple as the effects of the gate released its grasp on Ja’Ekavira. She started walking toward them, her eyes firstly meeting Ja’Sessh’s as he guided Ja’Alexa’s furious countenance to the side while she continued to struggle. Vaguely noticing Ja’Alexa’s head tilt as her anger shifting quickly to curiosity as she passed.

Winter stood before Ja’Ekavira, her eyes on the rakshasa as she hung still and silent, pinned under Ja’Freya’s arm. Feeling the new, subtle undercurrent in her power, a single thread that was now noticeably intertwined with the column of her volatile strength, she looked at defenceless rakshasa.

“I had to…” Ja’Freya stated calmly, stopping as Winter’s eyes met her own.

“I do not question your, Alexa’s or Sessh’s fury. You have every right to it.” she said, correcting the Empress’s clothes from their dishevelled state, “Release her, Freya. The Host’s command no longer defiles her. His reign over her is over.” Winter explained quietly, coming closer to take the unconscious Empress as she was released.

“Is that how it worked for you?” Ja’Freya asked, glancing at Winter.

Winter gave a slight shake of her head, “No, I was not bound to a task as she was. But the moment she passed into the Real I could feel her properly. From this moment on, I am truly her mistress and through me she is bound to her Master’s fate.” she said, carefully lifting Ja’Ekavira and settling her into her arms, “The moment she wakes, she will be quite different, confused, disoriented…Fearful. But, she will be free.”

“Why did she not react like this when she visited Scarosant those years ago?” asked Ja’Alexa from behind Winter.

A small smile twisted the corner of Winter’s lips, “I was not whole, I was not even aware she or you still existed. I was a Handmaiden of the Goddess Lumos, mother to Antrandis. I was his, but limited in punishment for my actions.”

“Punishment?”

Winter’s smile grew somewhat, “Yes, I carried out my role as my Master’s protector and right hand as best I could in my broken state. Knowing his strength, even as a child; led me to attempt placing him on the Host’s empty throne. A worthy replacement, who was pure at heart.”

Ja’Alexa stared at her in horror, “A child, on that throne?” she whispered, “You were to have a child take up the mantle of the...”

Winter glanced at her fleetingly, “I tried to continue carrying out my duty as defined by the Host’s meddling in my being. Innocent, confused and misguided.” she met her turquoise as she walked past, “I am expecting Ekavira to be of similar mind when she wakes. Misguided, confused, relatively calm...”

“And driven to distraction.” she finished, her voice just a breath as Mathilde fell into step beside her.

The forest beckoned, the strong scent of rain hung heavily in the air between the boughs of the evergreens. The wet dripping from the branches and the magnified smell of damp earth the product of the nearby storm after the fall of night the evening before. Above the trees, the faint glow of pre-dawn gave a blush to the darkness behind the mountains, the stars still shining brightly despite the coming of dawn.

A small guard of the Ke’Shasan stood just within the entrance, listening to their general as he ordered them to return to their homes and prepare to leave, to surrender their posts to the valkyries that stood on the trail. Concerned voices filled the night as they spoke heatedly before silence reigned, the sight of their Empress being carried by Winter and escorted by both Ja’Alexa and Ja’Freya and followed closely by the representatives of the Arcana and Shadows silencing them.

Mathilde touched Ja’Freya’s shoulder before passing, meeting with the others as they dismantled their makeshift camp. All of which no longer stood in their polished armour with spears and shields. Instead, wilder elf women with wings talked among themselves while they hid the signs of their passage.

Freya looked up and breathed in deeply, her tail twitching, “I am jealous, Sessh. You have been out in the wilds for several weeks.” she said softly as she felt him stop beside her.

“Maybe so, but I was not free to enjoy it.” he replied with a low rumble, his lip drawing up into a snarl, “It was only after I was beaten and humiliated by Winter that I could finally see what was right before me.”

She glanced at him, the respect in his eyes while he looked at the sky, “This world, the Eld is no longer as it was, Freya. We are now strangers to it and its ways.”

“What did you see that brought such respect and fear to your thoughts…” she asked softly.

He chuckled darkly, “I have watched the children of the new gods build monolithic fortifications out of the sands of a desert itself. I have seen the silver dragon in her might and fury, the child of the Ebon and Ivory; I grovelled before the Stormarrow in fear as she looked down on my insignificance. I have laid eyes upon Winter’s true self and I have bowed before the image of an elven man in humility, in the shame of my actions to ask forgiveness.”

Freya stared at him, “Silver dragon? There is no such…” she stopped as he looked down to her, “By Azzar Kar’Sharn, I have never seen such fear in your eyes.”

“My dear Freya, everything you thought you knew is no longer. The Silvast you have heard of, Ekavira only saw her as a moonelf. I have seen her as a dragon, her scales shimmering and absorbing the night sky, mirroring the stars, her flames so hot that with one breath she can lay waste to a fortress and leave only hot cinders and ash behind.”

“Why do you jest?” Ja’Alexa said softly, her eyes raised to the night sky.

“Jest? She is so imposing that the dragons who sleep would be lucky to stand to her shoulder at a stretch.” he glanced at the tall trees, appraising their height, “She could walk this forest and the tips of these trees could only just brush the scales of her belly. She could tear apart mountains.”

“But, Sessh. Surely that could not be possible?” Ja’Alexa responded, her eyes resting on him.

“That elven man, Antrandis of Darkfall. He lays claim to Winter, Sian and the silver dragon. They all refuse to be without him or each other, they do not vie for standing or dominance. Winter and Sian seem to be a part of him, they converse without speaking and they know each other’s thoughts.” Ja’Sessh rumbled.

Ja’Freya’s gaze shifted to Winter as she stood, cradling Ja’Ekavira in her arms and discussing something of importance with Mathilde, “In the words of our creator. Winter is to be the right hand of a god, the perfect partner, the perfect weapon, and Ekavira to be said god’s bride. A consort to complement others that came before and those that are yet to come... Those were Azzar Kar’Sharn’s words.” she whispered to the trees, “Who would have thought it would be in the new world, after the fall of the old gods and the coming of the new.”

“You swore allegiance to this elf, Sessh. What made you do such a thing?” Ja’Alexa asked.

“A needless question… He is the one guaranteeing our people’s safety. He has this elegance and speaks with purpose and patience that defies my understanding. When I answered his questions, it was like he was seeing through me, weighing the truth of my words against my soul.” he said quietly, “We are his now. Our lives, just like those Valkyrie before us, are his.” he paused for a moment, the last shimmering of the stars in his pale eyes, “I do not feel this is a bad thing.”