Roza sat silently in the barracks, inspecting the armory racks. They were pretty rusty, and weathered.
There was silence, but Roza knew she was there. "Back from your trip so soon, General?"
Gwen slunk into the dark room. "It turns out that super hearing provides me with an abundance of rumours circling the palace grounds."
"Really? I thought I crushed them all last time." Roza replied, switching her attention to her nails. Her polish was chipped- she would have to repaint them soon.
"Mm, well they're not exactly false." Gwen strolled over and sat down beside her, nudging her shoulder. Roza didn't flinch, only welcomed her.
The Storm Witch sighed. "Sunshine, you kind of make it obvious. I'm pretty sure Ashlee has been going crazy ever since she caught us."
"Don't call me sunshine."
"I think it's cute."
"And I don't."
"Do you, though?"
The general groaned. "Look at us. The most powerful Elites of this generation, and we can't even be together without someone screaming at us for impropriety. Oh, the consequences of power."
A beat of silence.
Roza muttered a curse under her breath. "Do you ever wonder what would happen if we had been born ordinary?"
Gwen looked into Roza's eyes. "Lots of times. But then I think about how I would've never met you, and gotten zapped because I was too quiet with my approach."
The other girl stifled a laugh. "I remember that. It was really funny. I'm surprised I wasn't given a penalty."
"I threw in a good word for you."
Roza let her head rest on Gwen's shoulder. "I have to ask. When did you start loving me?"
"From about the fifth time you zapped me because I kept sneaking up behind you and you couldn't hear my footsteps. You came to help me out in the infirmary, and you were never more beautiful until then."
"I actually learned your footsteps after the second time. I knew if I kept sending you to the infirmary that you would come back, so you could try to finally avoid the zap." Roza said quietly, closing her eyes. "Something about you was so alluring. It doesn't help that you're way too pretty to be in this universe. How were you only blessed by Arachnos' favour?"
Gwen smiled. "I could say the same about you." She planted a gentle kiss on Roza's forehead. "By the way, Ashlee's here again." she whispered.
Roza's eyes flew open and she sat up straight immediately. "Oh, do I scare her with lightning?" she whispered back, grinning mischievously.
"Or, you push her out with wind right in front of us and we can tell her to scram."
The Storm Witch smiled, twisting her hands and cracking her knuckles. With one swift motion, Ashlee tripped over herself, falling face-flat onto the floor in front of them.
"We know you're here, Ashlee." Gwen said.
"You really thought you could spy on someone with the gifts of Arachnos?" Roza continued, standing up. Gwen followed the gesture, placing her hands at her hips.
Ashlee dusted off her clothes and shook the dirt out of her hair. "Ugh... Why is everyone so secretive about this stuff? I just want a real life version of all the novels I read. Solarie and Sylas keep playing cat and mouse, and you two won't even let me sit in on this." she whined.
"It's rude to spy on people." Gwen reminded her.
"Especially the general of the Elite Army. Did nobody teach you manners?" Roza chimed in.
Ashlee rolled her eyes. "You guys are the ones sneaking around, yet I'm the villain. I'm going back to training." She strolled off, huffing and muttering something about crippling disappointment.
"Can we go to your room?" Roza piped quietly.
"Why?"
"I'm tired, and I want to sleep. I don't leave until dusk and I doubt sleeping on a train is going to be comfortable."
"You can sleep in your room."
"Where's the fun in that?"
Gwen sighed. "If you stop calling me sunshine, I may consider it."
"Alright, general. I will go sleep and dream about new endearing nicknames for you."
"Don't expect to be alone for long. I just need to wrap up guard orientation." She gave a quick kiss to Roza, before shuffling off.
"A witch and a general," Roza spoke aloud. "Who would've thought?"
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The sun finally set, the palace was locked up for the night, and Roza boarded the train. Solarie was already onboard, but her eyes were swollen, filled with tears. Something had happened to the girl, but Roza was careful to disturb the girl.
The intercom came on. Welcome, passengers. House Erebus will be powering this train today along with House Lai. Our Estimated time of arrival to Nebesa is forty-seven hours. Please sit tight. Roza had severely underestimated the engineering marvels and miracles that the houses had performed in order to develop the train. It was comprised of sixteen carriages, made up of four storage cars, one engine car, one conductor section, one utilities and lavatory, and nine passenger cars.
Solarie didn't talk for the whole journey, and it was strange seeing her like this. Usually, she was quiet only when she was half asleep during one of their lessons.
"I cannot take it any more," Roza snapped and marched herself over to wear Solarie was moping. "What is going on with you? You're not a bubbly demon child, or a whining rat. I hate to say this, but I'm actually concerned. What happened?"
She continued to hang her head low. Roza thought she heard sniffling, but with Solarie's head buried into her hands, it was hard to tell. Sobbing? Roza thought silently to herself. It had been a long time since Roza had cried. She wasn't entirely sure what she could do to help Solarie, but in the moment, the best she could do was draw her into a warm embrace.
Solarie flinched, but returned the gesture, still crying. "Hey, hey. You're going to be fine. I don't know what happened, but I promise whoever did this to you, I'm going to crush them." Roza lightly tossed the threat out there. Gods, being motherly was a horrible colour on her. She made a mental note to never have children.
Her pupil continued her stifled weeping, but did not say what had caused her tears. Roza admired her determination to not confess whatever had happened. By this point, she herself would probably have been sleeping or passed out, whether it be from alcohol or not, but since Solarie wasn't of age and apparently wasn't keen on breaking the law, she couldn't really offer the girl a solution. Roza dealt with things quietly and quickly; push everything down and down and down until there was no trace of any sadness; Solarie was the opposite, letting out her emotions in a big drive and push.
"You don't have to say anything, but tomorrow, we're going to be in a new country. I need you to collect yourself for just a little more, and once we get back to Cai, you can do whatever you please. Hold on, just a little longer, alright?" Roza drew away, returning to her seat but not before slipping a few dried-candied plums into Solarie's palms. She returned to her seat, and promptly turned to the wall.
This train was an incredible feat of engineering. Approved by both the Nebesan and Cainese governments, the rails travelled beneath the earth's surface, underground with interlocking tunnels to connect in two big stations underneath the Syatyy, or Saint Anatoly Vosburg Tower, and the Cai grand palace, with substations scattered between.
Roza closed her eyes. It was going to be a long journey, and with the timezone changing in Nebesa, she might as well get her hours in before it was too late. She slowly drifted away, letting the train's low rumble carry her to sleep.
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The Saint Anatoly Vosburg Tower, or just Syatyy Tower for the locals, was a massive feat of non-Elite engineering. Built eons ago to withstand the tests of time, unfortunate weather, and aggressive civilians, the tower was so old and structurally sound for its time that nobody could quite remember when or how it was built. The tower was more than triple the height of the Cai grand palace, and the tower itself looked like a distant fantasy. The base curved upwards, spreading itself out before rounding again and repeating the pattern thrice. At the top, was a crystal and when the sun was in the perfect position, created a dazzling spectacle during midday, when the sun was at its highest.
Some say that Syatyy Anatoly built the tower himself, and was blessed by the gods. Others, that Syatyy Anatoly was simply a martyr of revolution, against the Syzmeiskazki, and the tower was built in his honour. Perhaps it was an old dragon fort, hiding treasures once pillaged by the Syzmeiskazki. But every story, legend, and myth always ended with the same ending. The crystal was actually a magical artifact, the heart of the last dragon, protecting Nebesa from danger. And everytime the sun shone through the crystal, it meant goodwill for another day.
The sun did not shine through the crystal when they arrived.
It was hopelessly dreary and cloudy, and while the snow had settled for the time being, it was undoubtedly going to rear its ugly head again in just a moment, with ten times the force before. Roza practically dragged Solarie out of the train, and quickly into the warmer sector of the tower. She had stopped crying, for the most part- good. Either that, or the cold had dried and frozen her tears. Either way, she had cleaned up her appearance and looked fairly presentable.
"Solnishko, Roza!"
Roza's aunt, Tatiana, swooped her up into a big bear hug, while her other aunt, Sofiya, hung in the background, stoic. "Tyotya Tatiana, Tyotya Sofiya," she greeted. Roza gave both of them kisses on each cheek, but resisted the bear hug for Aunt Sofiya.
"And who is your friend here?" Sofiya gestured to Solarie. She smiled weakly, and Roza elbowed her hard in the ribs.
"Proper Nebesan greeting, remember?" she whispered, before shoving her forward.
Solarie stumbled in front of the two women. "Ah- moi tsarevich? Tsarita?" she fumbled over her words, in addition to her terrible accent.
"It's alright, Miss Lin," Tatiana chuckled, and welcomed in perfect Cainese. "We both speak Cainese just fine." she took Solarie's hand, and placed a gentle kiss on top. "There. Proper greeting. Sofiya will murder me if I don't show you otherwise." She laughed, and sauntered back to Sofiya who was rolling her eyes. Solarie was left dumbstruck, standing there like a deer caught by a flashlight, or an alley cat who was just found.
Roza's aunts led them above the tower, and she was generally fascinated with the way people could be transported up and down the tower. There were stairs, of course, but also these caged boxes powered by pure electricity and pulleys.
"We installed these elevators a few years ago," Tatiana explained. "The Viva sent us prototypes for trade. They're extraordinary- before, all we had were those stairs, and anyone stationed at the top of the building endured an hour-long hike to the top."
Sofiya sighed. "Tati, please, do not bore our guests."
Tatiana feigned offense. "It's not boring. It's much more exciting than any council news, anyway."
"Tati, you're a judge. Please, show some dignity."
"There's the cynic."
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Most of the elevator ride up was Sofiya and Tatiana arguing, but Roza didn't necessarily mind too much. It was normal to see her family argue like this. It was a core part of Nebesan culture; infighting within family was just another way to show affection within.
"We're here," Tatiana said fondly. They were on the thirty-second floor of the tower, just shy of the top floor. This was the Justice Commission; made up of seven judges, Tatiana being one of them, who governed the whole of Nebesa's justice system. They controlled diplomats, emissaries, and other international relational situations. In a way, each judge was just as powerful as Roman Zaytsev-Sasin, the current reigning tsar of Nebesa. Only, they were his subordinates.
Sofiya walked amongst the group until they reached Tatiana's sector. It was fully decorated, cluttered with a variety of memorabilia, weapons, and other things. The room was lined with shelves on every wall, save for the door, and a singular desk dead center, facing outwards. "This is as far as I go. Roza, Tatiana, and Miss Lin, I will see you at the residence." Sofiya shut the door behind her, off to whatever duties council members of Nebesa participated in.
Atop Tatiana's desk, was a plaque with something etched into the malleable gold plating. Humility, Justice, Diligence, Generosity, Peace.
"The five heavenly principles," Roza traced the indentations over with her right index finger. "Thou shall follow the orders of the heavens, for if not respected, the order of the mortal realm will fall."
"And the duties of a judge," Tatiana continued. "Are as follows; incarceration, detention, interrogation, punishment, investigation, examination and the hunt."
Roza looked up, following Tatiana's eyes to another plaque hung above the door. "The seven duties of a judge."
Her aunt sighed. "Don't worry. I don't have to do much of that. I am only responsible for incarceration. Seven judges, seven duties. It works out quite nicely. Poor Viktoria has to run around chasing criminals. The only thing I have to do is actually incarcerate them." she laughed. While Tatiana may have been covering up the amount of work actually involved in her branch, she masked it quite nicely, so much so for a moment Roza was naïve enough to think that her aunt wasn't buried under mountains of paperwork; much more than whatever Roza was suffering from. It seemed military and judicial work, along with piles of paperwork were the one running tradition within the family.
A sudden crash at the edge of the tower shook Roza out of her thoughts. "Get down!" Tatiana yelled, roughly pushing both girls to the ground. Roza dared to look up- people were screaming, running, shouting, and a whole lot of other things were getting thrown around. Despite her aunt's commands, she shot up, eyes already glowing and power flickering to life.
One of the glass windows was completely shattered, the broken pieces strewn around inside where the window previously stood. A rush of cold air and snow flew to her face- she promptly ignored it and continued trekking on, ignorant of the glass underneath her boots.
Between the cloudy skies, howling wind, and endless streams of snow and freezing rain, it was particularly hard to see what had broken the window. Roza did not have access to any sources of light, except herself; a continuous stream of lightning would illuminate a portion of the sky, and that would have to be enough.
She sent sizzling streams of lightning into the sky, blue sparks flying off. Normally, she would prefer to not send so much electricity into the atmosphere in fear of ordinary objects becoming charged with static by accident, or frying someone in the process. Unfortunately, Roza didn't have much of a choice, and she was high above the ground anyway, so there wasn't too much harm that could be done.
Though the range was small, she could slightly see a sliver of something flying in the air.
Green scales?
It proved itself quickly. An enormous serpent erupted out of the clouds, diving away from Roza's stream of lightning and hurling itself towards her. She quickly created a shield for herself, a web of lightning that would surely electrocute anything that passed through it. This serpent detected it, and dodged, slithering back into the clouds.
Damn it, Roza thought angrily. She couldn't control the storm outside, as long as she was origana. But what she could do...
If you can't change it, get rid of it.
She silently thanked Ethan for teaching her every loophole there was to her power. The Storm Witch summoned an enormous gust of wind, funneling all her might into it. It created a pocket in the sky- devoid of clouds, snow, or any other wintry weather.
If I don't regenerate myself, I'm going to pass out soon. She let herself power down, waiting for the serpent to come back. This wasn't a shadow monster she could just banish with some sparks of bright lightning- this was something big, ginormous, and dangerous, who thrived in the storm.
Syzmeiskazki, she realized, berating herself for her own stupidity. Thrived in the storm, used storm powers, scales, serpent-like? Why hadn't she realized before? Well, it was too late now. She was going to have to do the work of a literal saint, except the only weapon she had was herself.
Born of the storm, they said. That makes two of us.
This time, she did not hesitate to back up her movements. During her training days, she briefly studied flying- it was hard, considering she could not manipulate the air around her, but she technically could stay suspended in the air, given she used at least one hand to keep herself steady.
Here goes nothing.
Roza lept out the window, letting her own wind match the rhythm of the natural wind. She was floating, and then ascending. Either she was dying, or she was finding out if she still remembered how to fly. Thankfully, her fate was the latter. She was levitating, and if the roar in the distance was any indicator, she would have to move fast. Roza let her power come to her, engulfing her mind as she soared upwards in a kind of wind cocoon. This was going to be her fight to finish- any other ending she would not settle for.
"Hey!" she shouted out in Nebesan. "Syzmeiskazki! nuy-aksebva yevokov!" come and get me.
Her call was quickly answered. In a flash, the serpent rose from the clouds, and dove straight to her.
Something was waiting for this beast. A crackling, dazzling net of pure lightning dropped and encased the syzmeiskazki, and the serpent was helpless to do anything. Her study of Nebesan mythology had done her well; the syzmeiskazki could not escape the grasp of lightning. It had been a gamble on her part, estimating its length, but after observing its movements and tracking the way the cloud's path was disrupted by the monster, she could spare a guess as to how long it actually was. If only Syatyy Grigori had access to lightning-summoning weapons. The age of the syzmeiskazki would've been over a lot sooner.
Like the ouroboros from the mythology of the Hidden Isles, the draconic beast knew its own destruction and demise. It had accepted defeat, and with that, the raging blizzard began to dissipate. The ouroboros from the legends were the symbols of life and death, destruction and rebirth; in this case, the rebirth belonged to Roza.
A long time ago, she had read the tale of Syatyya Elizaveta, the young maiden who had conquered one syzmeiskazki, named Jordaan; but instead of destroying him, she helped nourish and control him. They became one and the same; inseparable, literally and figuratively. One day, Syatyy Grigori slayed Jordaan, separating the serpent from the girl. In her fury, Syatyy Elizaveta buried the island in mountains of sleet and snow, barring anyone from escaping or entering. Elizaveta then disappeared- rumoured to have gone back to the soul sanctum to search for her lost companion. Sometimes she was killed by Grigori in the end- others say she died old and forgotten. But it didn't matter how the story ended; only how it began.
The Storm Witch reached out to the syzmeiskazki, impervious to her own lightning. She rested a hand against its chest, feeling its heart thumping against the shiny scales. In this moment, it was just the two of them. Two entities born of chaos and discord, rejected yet respected by others- adored by few. Roza could finally get a better look at the creature now that her adrenaline had finished pumping through her veins. Silvery green scales adorned with crystals made up most of the body, but at the head, it transformed into a dazzling, brilliant blue. The eyes were pure black, endless reflective voids like darkened mirrors. The claws were a pure white, yet somehow they felt ever so beautifully metallic.
And the heart; she couldn't see it, but she could feel it. Pure crystal, shimmering and full of life. Roza knelt her head against the syzmeiskazki's cold body, undying respect for her opponent.
"You didn't expect someone with the same power as you, did you?" she whispered close. "But you and I, we're the same. There's nothing between us except the sky and the sea. You don't have to be alone any more."
As soon as she said those words, she felt the heart of the syzmeiskazki even more than before. It was beating, no, drumming like a war drum.
In this moment, time was just a concept. In this fleeting dream, it was just children of the storm. In this harmonic reverie, it was just Roza and the serpent.
But all good things must end. Her body expelled the last of her energy, and then she started falling.
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Roza did not remember going to sleep.
One moment, she was in the sky- the next, inside what she made out to be her aunts' shared residence. She could hear voices, but it took her a moment to identify each.
"Roza! Roza, dear, are you alright?" Tatiana.
"Roza, please, wake up!" Solarie?
"Saints, girl, wake up! Can't save a country if you're halfway to the soul sanctum!" Sofiya.
Funnily enough, it was Sofiya's voice that woke her from her slumber. Something about being a patriot really worked on her. No sense of self preservation, only for her country. Roza would probably have to rethink her priorities eventually, but for now, she was content to be alive.
She rubbed her eyes, sitting up slowly. Even though nobody would blame her for prawn posture, she still did not neglect to adjust her back. "What happened to the Syzmeiskazki?" was all she could manage, although a bit groggy.
Tatiana threw herself at Roza, thrusting her back into a pillow. "Thank the saints you're okay," she heaved a shaky breath. Solarie was grinning, and even Sofiya managed a thin smile.
"Ay, Tati, don't throw her back down. She suffered a heavy enough fall." Sofiya reprimanded her sister.
"Roza, what happened?" Solarie inquired, concern written all over her face. "One moment you were under the desk with us, the next fighting that siz- siz ma- that thing."
She coughed. "Syzmeiskazki," she corrected. "I'm fine. I fought one, put it in a lightning net, and then... nothing. I think I fell out of the sky?"
"Damn right you did! We found you on the ground outside the tower. We thought you were dead. But apparently, something broke your fall. You don't have a scratch on you." Sofiya gestured to her.
"Syatyya Elizaveta," she muttered. "Oh gods." The realization hit everyone but Solarie at once.
"I absorbed a dragon."
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"Let's just stay calm for now, alright?" Sofiya tried to reassure everyone else. It did nothing to calm anyone's hyperactivity.
Roza was just as clueless as the rest, despite being the one who had fought the syzmeiskazki. "How did a syzmeiskazki get out in the first place?" she asked, very confused.
Silence. Then, a beat later; "the crystal."
Sofiya continued with her theory. "What if the crystal was not a trophy, but a seal? At first the snow was not heavy, no? But if something had damaged the crystal..."
"Any number of syzmeiskazki would have been let out, therefore amplifying the snow storm..." Tatiana added, before trailing off too.
"And causing me to fight one and absorb it." Roza finished, finally.
Solarie was still looking confuzzled. "And what does this exactly mean?"
Roza was kind enough not to roll her eyes or berate the girl. "It means that I share a soul with a syzmeiskazki now."