Ode's trapped in a whirling sandstorm conjured by the Witch Queen's hands, concentrated solely on her. She opens her mouth to scream, but the sand gets into every crevice of her body, like she's drowning in an ocean of sand. She falls to her knees, sand flowing from her ears, dragging gold-scarlet blood from her body. Leaking from her, burrowing into her skin, sharp as heated knives.
"I am the Witch Queen Malika. My village hung my whole family from a tree. My mother. My little brother." The girl enters the sandstorm vortex, her hands splayed wide, light emanating from her eyes, the power glowing within her. "They even hung me, but my feet kicked against the bark. For three days straight, I kept myself alive, straining myself with my magic. Kicking myself upwards to keep the rope from breaking my neck."
Ode coughs, swings, but the sand makes it so difficult to keep her eyes open. It stings and burns her viscerally. She misses, the young Witch Queen already pacing to her other side. "My coven sisters found me. Cut me down. Saved me. Honored me as their queen. My faith in the Mother Goddess kept me alive. And you, goddess of death." The girl's nostrils flare in anger. "I saw you every day I hung from that tree. You would've taken my life!"
Ode coughs up sand and blood, scratching the sand from her eyes, clawing it out as she struggles to regain her footing. "It was a mercy. I was trying to end your suffering."
"You won't kill me now." She counters, standing almost directly in front of Ode now.
Ode grins.
Don't get too close to the beast's jaws.
She lashes out then, having faked her weakness. The Witch Queen tries to stumble back, but she's used to letting her magic fight for her. Her dodge is clumsy. She trips and falls.
Ode places her hands to hold the girl down in the sand. Red-black eyes glowing viciously. "You think I haven't suffered?"
And then, the death goddess shows the girl her past.
When she was mortal, seventeen years before.
The First Divine War.
***
"Because you never knew your place. And you'd never have the balls to kill me." He spits at the ground, his lips curling into a smile. "You're just a woman."
"Ode Ngayoh's a witch. Arrest the witch! Arrest the witch! Arrest her!" And then, after intermittent, childlike sobbing, there's a high-pitched wail. "Murderer! Murderer! Murdered that poor man..."
"You shouldn't try so hard to be funny, Ode. Think on it. You are a daughter of men. I am the son of a mighty empire." He holds his hands into the air, his eyes glowing. "What chance have you to defeat me?"
"How can we tell if she's a witch or a whore?"
Laughter. Laughter. Laughter.
"Is it true witches dance naked in the desert?"
I struggle to stand, but he kicks me in the ribs and the pain blinds me. I lash out weakly, grabbing at his ankles to trip him. But he twists away easily, and I'm forced to snatch my hand back before he gets the opportunity to break my fingers.
Screaming from the pain.
I sob, so alone. What is this horrid sadness? What is the sorrow I cannot name? I want death, but I still cling pitifully to life, to the pain I can feel...
"You're a woman."
I fall back into my chair, clamping my mouth shut, wanting to feel their blood slick and pulsing over my hands. That's the answer for everything these days.
Because I'm a woman.
***
"I can kill you now," Ode stares into the young Malika's eyes, the noose's scars, examining the scars that she can't see. Knowing she can't heal everything, but that the death goddess can damn well try. "But don't you see? I know how you suffered. I know how the world can be so cruel against us, against those who are different than the status quo. But that Mother Goddess doesn't have those answers. She used you. She doesn't love humans. She loves herself."
A tear wells in Malika's eye, a tear trickling down as her whole worldview is shattered.
"I won't abandon you, Malika." Even with sand and blood dripping from Ode's nose, her eyes, she still struggles to smile away the pain. "I won't let anyone else hurt you."
A pause, she struggles to find words, searching my eyes. Running her hands over the back of her bare neck, uncertain. Frightened.
Finally, her lips part. She stares, determined, up at Ode. "Okay."
The sands calm. Ode rolls off her, shoulders slumped.
Only to turn around and see Ratu, feet dangling above ground. Choking in the grasp of a monstrous girl, half-iron and half-flesh. An axe embedded into her right arm.
"Hello there," the metallic-flesh creation says, a pile of undead, severed limbs surrounding her. "I'm the Godkiller."
She throws Ratu at Ode. The goddess rushes to check the thief's vital signs. A blow to the head. Still breathing, but just. She glares up at the monstrous girl, looking to that lethal axe.
A knife, embedded in the Godkiller's breast, up to the hilt.
She grins, pulling it out easily with a horrid squelching sounds. The flesh healing over it almost instantaneously. The axe glows. Regenerative healing. Ode grimaces with the realization. What is this monster doing with Kane's life-giving magic?
***
Hey Pirates,
Seems we have a challenger.
-Sophia