The world around me was consumed by unfathomable darkness. It weighed upon my soul like a funeral pall trying to smother away all sanity left within my racing mind. Cold rough hands were shackled around my upper arms, dragging my thrashing, screaming body through what was likely some obscure part of the Tenverian castle. Heavy armored boots clomped against the stone floor on either side of me, with the putrid odors of death and decay burning my nostrils.
Man, these guys stink!
"Valarendrik will come for me! Make no mistake about that!" I threatened while digging my heels against the floor. It might have been foolish to give them so much attitude, but I was fully confident that Valarendrik would rescue me. Plus I knew they wouldn't do me any harm while his child was growing within my womb.
A sinister cackle, no doubt gurgled from the queen herself, suddenly resounded throughout the suffocating darkness. "Let's hope that he does. We'll need his fingers to forge the next crown, after all." Cerindier's voice sardonically cooed like a wicked old witch.
A retort about how Valarendrik had recently discovered his true strength and power teetered on the tip of my tongue, desperate to leap off and smack her right in the ugly face. But I forced my words to remain silent, not wanting to ruin any chance he might have at gaining the upper hand. My rash decision making and stupidity had already gotten me into this mess, and I didn't want to make the situation any worse.
The image of Rosalie standing all alone in the doorway kept replaying in my mind. And I couldn't seem to stop reprimanding myself for what had happened. I felt utterly foolish and embarrassed about what I had done. There had no doubt been something terribly off about her, yet I allowed my emotions to guild my actions rather than logic, and sprinted right into the waiting arms of danger. It was as though they knew exactly what would pluck at my heartstrings, and that lloigor had played on mine like a master harpist.
...And now I'm back in fucking Tenverial of all places.
"You will not succeed in crowning my child, Cerindier. And as long as I breathe, I will do whatever it takes to ensure that you never meet them!" I tried to glare at her, hoping that I wasn't looking at the wall or something.
"You actually breathe?" Her voice held an amused yet inquisitive tone. "Well, resist me all you'd like. It won't change the fact that I will raise the heir myself, and we will feast on your flesh once they are born. Perhaps I'll even nurse the little one with a bottle of your blood..." She whimsically stated. "It smelled like a divine delicacy during the wedding. I'm honestly surprised that my son has the self-control to restrain himself around you, as unorthodox as he may be."
My stomach twisted in revulsion at the thought of her disgusting corpsen hands cradling my child while feeding them my blood. "Valarendrik has self-control because he is a good man. Which is astonishing, considering who raised him." Really though, how did someone who was raised by an abusive narcissistic cannibal, then lived in the wilderness with an actual demon as his only communicable friend, develop such strong moral principles? He truly was just naturally that pure of heart and soul.
A faint growl came from the queen, and if I had been able to see, I'm sure there would've been a sneer on her ugly corpsen face. The sounds of her shoes clicking along the floor came to a stop. "He is nothing more than a weakling with a mental infliction!" She hissed. "His condition has nothing to do with how I raised him!"
I internally laughed, finding it amusing how she seemed to gaslight herself into believing her own lie... You're the weak one, Cerindier. Not Val...
The long eerie screech of a heavy door being pushed open filled my ears, followed by soft weeping and anxious murmurs... spoken in English. I immediately perked to attention. The guards dragged me through the doorway and into a room where a few lofty barred windows overlooked the ocean waves crashing upon the lower cliffs, allowing me to faintly see the outlines of many people chained to the walls and a group sitting on the floor.
"Lucilia!" I easily recognized Oliver's voice, followed by a cacophony of panicked other voices bombarding me with questions about my wellbeing and how I got here. The rattling of chains and shifting of bodies added extra noise to all the commotion.
"Oliver!?" I called his name since he was the first person I heard. "Is everyone alright? How many of you are here?"
"We're fine, just beaten and chained-"
"Silence!" Cerindier viciously snarled, interrupting Jayden's unmistakable voice. Although they couldn't understand the abyssal language, her tone still managed to easily get the point across.
"Ah... So they do recognize one another." The Elder Graith's raspy voice suddenly came from my right near a large table carved of what looked to be solid obsidian. "These peculiar tenverians have indeed been in contact with the prince."
"Yes, but how are we supposed to ask them about the orb when all they do is weep and mumble in fucking gibberish!" The outline of Cerindier angrily waving her hand came into view as my eyes began to adjust to the darkness. They seemed to adjust a bit slower after having been back on earth, but they were adjusting no less.
"Hmm... Our princess here appears to know the foreign tongue in which they speak. Perhaps she should ask our guests?"
A scowl darkened my features as I tried to pinpoint exactly which shape was the Elder Graith. "None of them know where Valarendrik hid the orb. I know this because he went off and did that by himself." I almost mentioned that they were of no use to them, but knowing as much as I did about Cerindier, she'd have them all slaughtered rather than released. I certainly didn't want to say anything that might get someone killed. "If you want the orb so badly, then I'm sure he'd be willing to trade its location for their safe release."
"So..." Cerindier sinisterly drawled. "These foreigners have value to the prince?" She tapped her chin while observing them, softly chuckling in delight.
Oh shit... Perhaps I have said the wrong thing after all...
A guard suddenly burst into the room with loud heavy footsteps and clanking armor, practically making me jump right out of my skin. "Your Highness!" His deep gravelly voice spoke with urgency. "Prince Valarendrik is on the hillside right outside the main gate demanding your presence! The winged beast and the wolf are with him as well as another human creature."
I could faintly see a wicked grin twisting across her half-masked face. "Wonderful. I'll be right out to see what my son has to say..." Her deathly gaze eerily shifted to me. "In the meantime, tie the princess to the table so that the examination may commence. And gag her so she doesn't conspire with the prisoners." She waved her arms over at all the human-tenverians.
"Gag me?-Humph!" A nasty strip of horrid-tasting black leather was suddenly wrapped around my mouth. I flailed my arms and tried to protest as one of the guards tightly tied it at the back of my head with abrupt yanking motions.
"Now..." I heard the unmistakable hiss of a weapon being unsheathed. Cerindier's long dress gently swooshed side to side as she sinisterly prowled over to a few of the people sitting on the floor. Bloodlust glinted in her deathly eyes while she ominously twirled a long obsidian dagger between her clawed fingers. "I say we give Valarendrik a gift for his visit. It's not too often that I get to see my boy, after all."
The gag muffled my terrified protests as a guard hoisted me up onto the smooth cool surface of the table. I squirmed and my head thrashed to the side, taking in the sight of the queen. Fear and horror filled every inch of my being while I watched her slowly sizing up the prisoners, grinning like a menacing shark deciding which fish to snack on. Two huge corpsen hands yanked on my legs, painfully holding them still while another guard diligently tied them down.
"Be gentle with her!" Cerindier snapped, disapproving of their rough actions. "If she doesn't carry that baby to full term I will have all of your heads!" Their grip on me immediately loosened but was still quite firm. "This one will do..." She forcefully grabbed a young man by the hair, making him scream out in pain. Her dress was slightly blocking my view, so it was hard to make out exactly who it was.
"No!" Jayden began to wildly thrash, making the chains binding him loudly rattle. The desperation and terror lacing his voice chilled my very soul as though it was bellowed from the icy jaws of the reaper himself. "Don't touch him! Take me! Take me instead! But please don't hurt my son!" He wildly stomped at the floor, trying to get the queen's attention in a fit of hysterical panic.
...Parker... Oh my god, she's going to kill Parker.
A cacophony of screams and wails filled the room, mingling with my muffled cries of desperation. I hardly noticed the guards securing my hands by my sides as tears of distress began to stream down my temples. It was surreal, almost seeming to happen in slow motion, as she yanked back Parker's head and ruthlessly drove the dagger deep into his throat without a second thought. Jayden's tormented scream rang above all the others, filled with the greatest pain one could imagine.
Parker's cries for mercy turned into gurgled sputtering while thick black waves of blood gushed from his throat. Cerindier grinned while she continued to work her sharp blade, cutting and sawing his pale grey flesh down to the bone as though it were made of mere butter. Blood dripped and pooled upon the floor, soaking into the front of his tattered shirt. She seemed to relish the song of screams all around her, as though feeding off their misery like a vile parasite. She grabbed the head and then violently snapped it to the side, severing the spinal cord with a sickeningly wet crunch.
Long braided pigtails eerily dangled below Parker's severed head, as Cerindier pridefully held it up in front of her face with her bloody clawed hands. "Aw, this will make a lovely gift, indeed." She hummed out a little happy-sounding chuckle.
His headless body lifelessly flopped to the floor while she strolled out of the room without sparing any of the prisoners a second glance, only stopping to briefly look at me and the Elder Graith. "You may begin the examination while I'm away. But make sure that at no point is she under too much stress." A few guards loudly stomped out of the room behind her, slamming the heavy stone door shut as though it was made of plywood.
Jayden's entire being was trembling while tears poured out of him like torrents of grief. "Parker... She killed Parker... She killed my son..." Overwhelming agony spilled from his voice as he spoke between his sobs. The echo of his suffering seemed to reverberate all around, making it impossible not to weep for him.
"Now, my queen of colors..." The Elder Graith's cold clammy hands lifted up my shirt to expose my lower stomach. He placed his long bony palm directly over my womb, with his many rows of needle-like teeth coming into view as a wide grin split his eyeless face. "Let us examine the heir..."
~Valarendrik~
The raging clouds swirling above and the fierce mountain winds gusting across the ashes were incomparable to the fury which burned throughout my soul. My rage was thick. Almost tangible. Like a living entity all its own taking root within every inch of my spirit. Never had I known such raw fear and anger before. Never had I been driven to this extreme mental state before. My shadows and small electric threads of white light writhed throughout my hair, wildly twisting around one another down my back in a vengeful dance of acrimony. While bitter venom dripped from my fangs and my claws seemed stuck in a permanent state of extension. My boots hovered a few inches above the stony terrain, my heightened emotions making it difficult to keep my feet on the ground.
Azathoth's long ebon hair stoically swayed in the wind, his fangs ferally bared and eyes set agleam with hellfire as he snarled at the many chattering lloigors crawling upon the mighty kingdom walls. He had brought Maribel and the four children to a dark room back in Hell, where Gwendolyn and Darrell were helping to take care of them. Rosalie was alive, yet seemed empty as though her mind was lost in another world. She had never spoken before, but this was something entirely different.
William stood on my left, with strands of his pale hair fluttering across his scowling face. His light blue eyes were rimmed with red, a testament to his sorrow. He had demanded to come with us, driven by the desire to help rescue Oliver. And once Belzar had heard of what had happened, well, he'd seemed all but rabid with fury. Little pebbles clanked as his aggressively pacing paws knocked them down the steep rocky hill. Foam dripped from his snarling maw, showing off his menacing abyss-wolf teeth.
"Where is Cerindier!?" My voice impatiently boomed across the small ashen valley and up to a few of the guards stationed atop the wall, the stone splitting beneath my feet. The lloigors all cackled in response, their eldrich maws dripping with black sludge while quivering in delight. It was a highly unsettling and deathly sound. "Do you think we should just attack?" My hateful white eyes remained on the kingdom, though my question was directed toward Azathoth. He knew much more about war than I did.
"I would say yes, if it weren't for all those fucking lloigors creeping about." He angrily gestured to the swarm of what was likely a few hundred of the fuckers. They crawled upon the walls like an insidious infestation of insects, chirping and growling in their own disgusting lizardy way. Their movements were both grotesque and unnatural looking, with their sleek and sickly black bodies glistening with filth, a testament to their alien origin.
"You've killed one of those bitches before though, right?" William raised a brow at him while shuffling his stance upon the rocks.
"Yeah, one. And even then it was quite the fight." Incandescent veins burned throughout his wings. "I had to use hellfire to defeat it. Which would be stupid to try here since it would risk roasting Lucilia and all the others to a crisp as well. We have to be more methodical about this."
A deep snarl tore from my throat as Cerindier's ugly mug suddenly sauntered into view on top of the wall. A few burly guards followed her, stopping to stand right above the main gate. Bile filled the back of my throat as I quickly noticed the severed head within her hands. The face was turned away from me, but the long braided pigtails immediately gave away the victim's identity.
Parker... My insides twisted with the knowledge of the immense grief Jayden and Maribel would suffer... If Jayden was even still alive that was.
"Cerindier!" My voice once again boomed across the small ashen valley. "Return my wife, my horse, and every tenverian found in the abysmal cremation grounds unharmed, or I will destroy the orb and attack the kingdom!" I had no idea if destroying the orb was even possible, but the threat just flew from my mouth.
"Give me back my man, you moldy old bitch!" William cupped his mouth as he angrily yelled. Azathoth quickly hollered a translation out for him, accompanied by a string of his own choice insults... Including something weird about being able to park a bus in her vagina... Whatever that meant.
There was an eerie stretch of silence between us, the mountain gales gusting through my long writhing hair. A thorny black tumbleweed bounced across the ashen valley, getting caught in a few jagged stones jutting up from the ground. Cerindier's upper lip curled over her fangs in a sneer, then she forcefully threw the head out towards us. The long pigtails twirled against the blackened skies while a trickle of black blood streamed out behind it, as it flew through the air, landing just below the hillside we stood upon. It rolled slightly up the dusty, rocky slope, then back down, stopping in a way that displayed the expression of utter terror frozen onto the young man's face. His pointed ear and mouth were filled with blood, and his black and crimson eyes were eerily devoid of all sentience. Dismay and sorrow panged in my heart at the sight of it.
I snarled in response, turning my flashing eyes back up to my mother just as she began to speak. "I have a different proposition for you, my weakling son. We keep the princess and if you do not return the orb by the next moonrise, I will personally slaughter every one of those freaks from the cremation grounds and string their bodies across the kingdom walls like banners for you to admire!" The lloigors all cackled in response. "And I suggest you get a move on, considering how close it is."
My shadows darkened the air around my enraged features. "Then you have chosen war, mother! I will fight for my wife, my horse, and all the others you have taken! Even if it means destroying this whole blasted kingdom in the process!"
A dark evil cackle bled from her putrid lips, echoing across the windy valley. Her hair and dress fluttered out behind her like an ebon cloak of death. "Let the three of you pitiful imbeciles try! You're weak. You have no army... And you're certainly not getting that horse back..."
My heart dropped into my stomach as the familiar jiggling of Sacacor's saddle and the clip-clop of his hooves were suddenly heard. His huge corpsen form whinnied and reared as two guards dragged him by the reins towards my mother... who was unsheathing her dagger.
"No..." I breathlessly spoke, right before utter panic seized every fiber of my being. My throat felt as though it was closing up, yet horrified screams began bellowing from my soul all the same. "NO! NO! DON"T YOU DARE TOUCH HIM!"
Lightning crackled around me and I took off in a mad dash, unsheathing my swords while gliding down the hill. The dagger gleamed as she swiftly held it up and drove it into Sagacor's chest, malevolently laughing as she did so. "NO!" The lloigors screeched while beginning to swarm my frantic form, melding with the harrowing sound of Sagacor's pained horse screams and Azathoth's shouts. My blades flashed as I slashed into the throat of the first lloigor to reach me, making it shriek in agony. I frantically sliced at another, while seeing my mother pull her blood-soaked dagger out, only to swiftly plunge it back into my beloved horse. His front legs crumbled beneath him as he whinnied in distress.
NO!NO!NO!NO!NO!
A ring of flames suddenly roared all around me, momentarily jarring the many lloigors who were about to completely converge. Azathoth quickly grabbed my shoulders and teleported us back up to the hillside, just as several sets of black harrowing jaws and claws came raining down, violently marring the ground where we had just been. We landed on the ashy stones with a heavy thud, scrambling to right ourselves.
As soon as I stood, I collapsed back down to my knees, screaming while gripping my hair in complete anguish. The ground trembled below me as I watched Sagacor's lifeless body tumble over the wall and plummet to the ashen soil below, his long mane and tail fluttering out behind him. He hit the ground with a harrowing thud, landing on his side with his legs appearing mangled and bent in unnatural ways. Blood spilled from between his sharp horse teeth, while his milky eyes stared vacantly up at the swirling obsidian sky. Cerindier gleefully laughed.
"Belzar, go! We have to leave right fucking now!" Azathoth roared as lloigors began teleporting all around us, malevolently snarling and clicking as they began to attack. Belzar's bristled body disappeared with a puff of black smoke, right as a lloigor tried to snap at him.
A powerful bright light glowed within William's palm, then he flung it out toward the wall just as Azathoth grabbed him and teleported us back to Hell...