Giggle. Giggle.
Giggle. Giggle.
Ode takes Kali into her arms. A little smudged from dirt and sand, and something suspiciously red, but otherwise none the worse for wear. The pirate kept his promise.
But her laughter, it can only mean one thing.
Ode pries Kali's hands back, sees the little time goddess snickering uncontrollably. "Fun now." Kali says, eyes gleaming. "Fun to mess with grandma."
Ode's eyes darken, staring at her child's face, seeing how her eyes gleam. "Where is grandma?"
Kaliya points to the spires of the palace, rising behind Lioness Gate. Lucky and his crew are all avoiding the Godkiller's vicious gaze. Ratu minds the enchanted manacles behind the enemy warrior's back. The Witch Queen stands frowning, arms crossed, counting her own dead.
"Back to the palace," Ode hisses, snapping the others to attention, "hurry!"
***
Farzaneh groans, her head feels like it's weighed down with stones. She struggles to get to her feet, half-rolling off the bed. When she catches her reflection in a water dish, her eyes are glowing bright like emeralds, magic bleeding from her as she moves.
But the rest of the infirmary, they're trapped there. Still as corpses.
Some sort of time witch?
Farzaneh's magic's undeniably strong, strong enough to set fires to whole villages. Strong enough to explode in the face of an all-devouring sea serpent. Strong enough to terrify even Malika, the Witch Queen. But how many more moments can she steal in this weird time gap before all that magic runs out?
Get moving.
Blood starts trickling from her nose as magic trickles from her body, doubly exhausting her from the strain. She makes her slow way through the palace, trying to find where this spell is coming from.
Footsteps, I hear footsteps.
Smoother than hers. Doesn't sound like this person's putting in too much effort to fight the spell. A woman, lean with a rope of silver hair and obsidian skin. A terrifying beauty. Behind her, a stern warrior with a shaved head, bandages wrapped around his forehead, bloody-golden spots soaking through the spots where his eyes should be. Muscular, blood and scars cutting into every available spot of tissue, into the core of his violent being. And next to them all, a person who is neither man nor woman. Undeniably beautiful, with long hair flowing in soft waves down their back. Soft eyes, scarlet, and a robe a matching color, sheer and slit down at their chest. Farzaneh has to tear her eyes away from them, to focus back on the woman in the center.
The woman grins, pointing a long fingernail at Fari. "Ah, I see. I know you, witch. You're the one who prayed to me every night." Her grin widens. "To take your cursed powers away from you. To bring your lover back from the dead."
"Who..." Fari pauses to wipe blood from her lips, "who are you?"
"Don't you recognize me?" The woman pouts, the people at her sides chuckling softly. From the end of the hall, Farzaneh can make out the outlines of Lunes in official robes, and a beaten man struggling behind them in heavy ropes. "I'm your goddess. The Matriarch of Truth."
Farzaneh looks at her, truly looks at her. The time spell burrows into her mind, messing with her perception of things, but still, all Farzaneh sees isn't beauty. Not power. It's greed. "If you're the witches' goddess, then where's Malika?" Farzaneh spits some of her blood onto the ground. "Or are you just a liar, for all you preach of truth?"
The Mother Goddess snaps her fingers, smirking. Farzaneh falls down to her knees. She struggles to rise, expending double her power, the blood from her nose a torrent. She feels so light-headed, yet she fights to keep her eyes open. "Malika wasn't as strong as I expected. It's like the gods and their Champions. Malika didn't make the cut. And there can only be one." She walks to Fari, pushes the witch's hair back behind the curved shell of her ear. "But you, look at all that power. Able to stand when I've forced you to kneel. And you've killed before, no? Gila."
"I'm not who you say I am."
"But you are a woman, fighting for her place in this world. For the sun to bow beneath you." The Matriarch puts her hands out to the side, seizing an imaginary sun between her palms. "All I ask is that you eliminate anyone who stands in your way. Humans. Weak gods. Pesky Diviners. Be my Champion, darling Farzaneh. Be that important hero you always wanted to be. Leave the name of that supposed legend, Ode Ngayoh, behind in the dust."
Farzaneh hesitates.
The Matriarch beams, pointing to her chafed wrists. "Or would you rather put the chains back on yourself, the manacles that humiliated you? Be a self-made prisoner all the days of your life, living with the guilt of Gila's death instead of accepting that Gila was just a sacrifice in the scheme of something greater?"
"I already am great." Farzaneh spits back, tearing her hands away from the Mother Goddess. "You self-aggrandizing bitch. And I won't go with you living."
That's when Farzaneh breaks into a run, tackling the beauty wearing the red robe. They screech, the sound nearly musical, as their head strikes the ground beneath the witch's fiery palm, luscious dark waves of hair burning beneath her fingertips. The person, no, this god, in reply curls their perfect fingernails around Fari's throat. But their grasp is made slick by all the blood trickling from Fari's nose to the hollow of her neck.
"She's burning me." Cries the deific beauty, "she's burning me!"
"Aziz!" Cries the shaved-headed warrior, the gashes where his eyes were bleeding bright gold, like the sun.
"Stay back, Cato." Aziz and Cato, are those not the names of Kane's siblings? The ones that betrayed him in the First Divine War? The Matriarch grimaces, staring down with disgust at Aziz. "If my child is weak, then you know what we do to them."
Cato, the god of war, retreats, re-sheathing his sword. "Leave them behind, mother."
Which means the one beneath my palms... Farzaneh stares down at them, scrabbling beneath Fari's blood, her fire. Red eyes glowing in anguish. Is Aziz, god of love and beauty.
"Come, let's leave. Before that troublesome daughter-in-law of mine arrives here." She sighs, snapping her fingers at her Lune entourage behind her. The human prisoner kicked like a dog until he slinks along beside them. "I've already sacrificed so much just to break you out of here, Cato." She stumbles a little.
The time spell is even affecting her, though she does better to hide it.
Cato takes up her other side, helping the Matriarch to stand. Gold trickles from her eyes, like tears. Godly blood, dripping from expending herself fighting against this spell. "Let me help you. This time spell affects all of us. You've got us all cleared from this enchantment, but if you fall unconscious trying to fight against it, we're all in for a bigger fight."
"I can walk by myself, son. I'm not the one who had my eyes gouged out by his own brother." Cato steps away from the Mother Goddess then, weak as she is from the time hex.
"Mother!" Aziz mews.
"Sorry, darling," the Matriarch coos. "You didn't make the cut." She draws a sigil against the ground, and a rift opens. Through the portal, Farzaneh sees glass houses.
A travel spell straight to Lune.
The Mother Goddess and her entourage escape through the rift. And right before the Matriarch drops into it, she casts one final glance at Farzaneh.
"The weak get left behind." She repeats, eyes boring into hers.
"No," the witch replies, a gruesome sight. Blood trickling down her face. Her hands afire, holding Aziz into the ground, palms burning white-hot. Eyes glowing, a green-eyed feline set to snap a bird's neck. "The weak run."
***
Pirates,
Me: Well, somebody's feeling like a badass, huh?
Farzaneh: (puts on sunglasses as someone plays theme music on a flute behind her) Oh yeah.
Me: Where did you get the sunglasses, they still have a price tag...
Kali: (giggles) Time travel!