Jack blinked away the salty water from his eyes and flipped himself over on his back. He was lying on a rocky beach, the roar of the crashing waves constant and neverending. Above him was a cloudy sky and a cold wind blew past, chilling his soaked body to the bone.
He sat up slowly, his body wracked with pain, and groaned as he felt stabs of agony pierce him all over. He remembered falling and hitting the water, the liquid feeling more like solid stone, and then blacking out. Everything else was nonexistent. There was only then and now. What had happened in between was a mystery to him.
Jack looked behind him, where earthen cliffs rose up for a few dozen feet, the long grass on their tops swaying in the wind. He could climb them easily enough, once the pain subsided somewhat, and from there find out where he was. Judging from where the naval battle had taken place and where he had hit the water he would probably still be in Noyr, which meant caution.
He shifted his gaze to the water and scanned the foggy horizon closely. Captain Hook might have seen him fall and may be surveying the coast for him. The captain wouldn't simply abandon him, that much Jack knew for certain. Yet, there were miles upon miles of coastline and Jack was one man. The Noyran coast wasn't safe for the captain to sail near either as coastal forts were formidable and dangerous obstacles.
"He won't give up on me," Jack said to himself with certainty.
A light rain began to fall and Jack shivered. As much as he wanted to wait for Captain Hook to find him, he couldn't do it out in the open in the rain. He would need shelter and something to eat and drink. This rocky coast offered nothing of the sort.
Jack was about to stand up and start walking when he noticed something rising out of the water to his right. It was huge, spiky, and covered in dark scales. Water spilled off the creature's body in a multitude of tiny waterfalls as it crawled out of the sea, its long, serpentine head hanging low. The body was covered in a myriad of cuts, gashes, sores, holes, and ruptures and many spears, swords, and axes still lay embedded within the flesh, poking out like quills.
The young man watched the black dragon crawl out of the sea, limping heavily, until it was mostly on the rocks and then collapse in a heavy heap. The dragon empress lay there for many minutes, unmoving, until eventually she changed form. The huge dragon body glowed with violet energy and rapidly shrunk into a tall, slender, dark-haired woman. The embedded weapons clattered to the ground, their blades and tips dripping with dragon blood. Though the weapons were no longer within the empress, the wounds remained.
Jack glanced at the weapons and the empress. She appeared on the verge of death and far too weak to defend herself. All it would take would be a simple sliced neck or impaled organ. The tools to get it done were there, in plain sight, and the prey was defenseless. Jack had, if he wished, the power to change Faeryum's future. All he needed to do was get up and grab a weapon.
He noticed the empress watching him, her eyes nearly shut in weariness. She lay on the rocks and made no effort to rise or defend herself. She coughed out some sea water, the motion seeming to drain her of even more energy, and moved her lips.
Jack's body tensed. She could be casting a spell and he wouldn't know it. Fighting the pain, he stood up and walked toward the nearest weapon, a long merfolk spear made of coral. Picking it up and clenching it tightly, he stepped over to the empress and looked down at her.
She blinked slowly and met his gaze, her golden eyes dull and nearly lifeless. "You won't...do it."
Jack's eyes widened in anger. "I have the power to end the war now, Rhiannon. It wouldn't take much energy for me to simply drop this spear into your cold heart. I can and I should do it!"
"S...Selvina," Rhiannon forced out of her broken body. "Kill me...kill her..."
Hot rage warmed Jack's cold body and he nearly impaled the empress then and there. This could all be a bluff, a desperate trick to save her own life. He knew it could be, and it most likely was, but what if it wasn't? What if, amazingly, the empress was right and she did have Selvina? He could end the war now but if he did so he'd lose the one person in his life that meant more to him than anything. Could he take that chance?
Then, as he thought of Selvina, a feeling colder than the wind and rain pierced through his heart. It embedded deep and remained there, weighing him down. His mind raced and panic built up within him. He didn't know what was causing it or what was going on but something was wrong. Something was terribly wrong. The more he thought of Selvina the more powerful the feeling became. He looked down at the empress, the spear shaking in his hand.
"You feel it too," Rhiannon said, fighting to speak every word. "Something...happened. Selvina...something is wrong...with her."
Jack's grip on the spear tightened. It couldn't be true. "What did you do?! What have you done to Selvina?!"
"I...am not to blame. I did...not do this..."
Lies, all of it! The empress had done something to Selvina, Jack was certain of it. If only he knew what. Judging by the cold feeling of fear and panic rising within him, it wasn't good.
"I should kill you, Rhiannon," he said through clenched teeth. "Most of the people in Faeryum would agree with me."
"Yes," Rhiannon said. "But you need me..."
"Curse you, Rhiannon! I don't need you for anything! Tell me what you did to Selvina!"
"It was not me," replied the empress. "Believe me..."
"You have Selvina and you did something. I can feel it, Rhiannon. Something has happened to Selvina. I...feel like a part of me...is missing. WHAT DID YOU DO?!!!"
"You...are hurt," she said, eyeing Jack's left arm.
He only just realized that it was dislocated. The pain in his soul overwhelmed any other physical pain he was feeling and it took a few moments before he could register the discomfort coming from his arm. He tried moving it but a fresh spasm of torment pulsed out of the shoulder and Jack winced.
"I...can help," Rhiannon offered.
"Stop talking, witch," Jack growled as he stabbed the spear into the rocky ground a hairsbreadth from the empress's face and tried to pop his arm back in place. It was incredibly agonizing and after several unsuccessful attempts he fell to his knees and stopped trying. He was on the verge of fainting from the pain and did not trust to do so in front of the empress. It was highly likely that if it happened, it would be the last time he fainted forever.
The rain began to intensify and Jack shivered again. He looked down at the dying empress and had a great urge to simply walk away and let her die. It was so tempting that he stood up and prepared to do just that.
"Selvina needs you," Rhiannon said. "Now more than ever..."
"I won't kill you, empress, but I won't help you either. I'll make it to Corbeau before you are ever discovered dead and take Selvina far from there. Whatever you did to her, I'll undo it. You have nothing to threaten me with."
Rhiannon closed her eyes and did not open them for several minutes. The rain pattered on her smooth face and dripped down her cheeks and lips, pooled between her eyelids, and flowed into her nostrils. Jack wondered if she had suddenly died on him and was prepared to leave to find Selvina when the empress spoke softly. "You don't understand, Jack. Something...something has happened. I can feel it. The magical balance...well, there is none. It's swaying wildly. Faeryum will feel it soon."
"What does that have to do with Selvina?"
"Everything, Jack. Everything."
Jack stared down at the empress and struggled with indecision. It almost seemed as if the empress was telling the truth and that she had nothing to do with whatever happened to Selvina. He still didn't know what had happened, or truly if something even had, but this empty feeling in his heart and soul wasn't for nothing. Selvina was in trouble and she needed him. He had to find her. He had to return to her.
Meanwhile, the cold rain poured hard, the drops feeling colder with every passing minute. The waves grew more fierce, crashing against the rocky shore and drowning out any other sound, even that of the roaring wind.
"Selvina is in danger, Jack," Rhiannon said before trying and failing to sit up. "We all are..."
"Why? What happened? What did you do?"
Rhiannon didn't meet Jack's gaze when she said, "I doomed us all."
****
The Writer would have leapt with joy at what he read. He would have cried out with glee and wanted to but couldn't. His body was broken and beaten and it took all his strength to keep reading the entries in Iktarosh's Life Story. The god had sapped the remaining energy from Accolon and Merlin, nearly killing them in the process, and used it to smash the doors keeping him locked in the chamber. The god now walked the halls of Caer Gobiyth on his way outside to the city, where he could witness his empire and all who served him. Guards had tried to stop him but he killed them with hardly a thought, growing stronger with every death.
He was a god and no one was going to stop him.
As for Selvina, the Writer couldn't be any happier. He would have preferred her to be dead but having her banished to some unknown dimension was just as good. She was gone forever and no longer a problem. His plan had finally come to fruition and he was now ready to claim full control of all of Faeryum, if not the rest of the world as well.
There were yet threats to his progress, however, small as they may be. Nevertheless, they would need to be dealt with. He eyed the empress's Life Story, remembering all the times he had written in it, all the times he had manipulated the powerful woman like a puppet. He had corrupted her mind, implanted dreams and aspirations, and changed her views to match his own for over a year, slowly but surely, and he had done it so well the empress had never caught on to what he was doing. She had been a powerful tool and a worthy ally but now her task was complete. She alone had the power to bring back Iktarosh and now that she had, he needed her no longer.
He picked up his quill and peered down at her pages. She was on some rocky beach with a young man named Jack. She was weak and nearly powerless, on the verge of death. She had suffered tremendous damage from the Lord of the Oceans and his people. The foolish merfolk thought the Black Knight her own conjuration and had severely punished her for it.
The Writer decided not to write anything in the empress's Life Story. He was nearly powerless himself and too many more manipulations could finish him. He could not die now, not when he had all that he ever wanted. Yet, he could not let the empress live.
He glanced at a nearby book and grinned. There was his solution. The Black Knight could kill the empress for him. The Black Knight had little in the ways of a mind anyhow and a minor alteration to its thoughts wouldn't hurt too much. He read the knight's entries, getting an idea of its location, and wrote a handful of words, ordering it to travel north along the coast. With Selvina gone forever, the Black Knight's new prey was the empress.
The Writer sat back in his wooden chair and was about to get up and get some rest when he remembered another detail. Besides the empress, there was one more being that could upset his plans.
Amalthea.
It was because of her that Selvina had come to Faeryum in the first place. If that damned unicorn woman was allowed to live she could seek out Selvina once more and bring her back. There was no way he could let that happen. He had the unicorn's Life Story in his halls but a unicorn was a being of holy magic and his quill, laden heavy with dark magic, had no affect on her. She was one of the few beings incapable of manipulation.
He gave it some thought, wondering what to do. He could redirect the Black Knight to Corbeau to kill Amalthea but Iktarosh may see the knight as a threat and the Writer would much rather have them both on his side. He could try and convince Iktarosh that the Black Knight was no enemy but he couldn't do that now. He needed time to rest and recover as manipulating a god was terribly dangerous work. No, the empress should be killed first and thus the Black Knight's plans would not be altered.
He had the Life Story of every guard and castle attendant within Corbeau but he knew them not by their names. Finding one of them amongst the lives of everyone in Faeryum would take too long. Some of them may fail at the task as well. He need someone with power, someone with ambition, a drive for success, and perhaps a little anger or taste for violence as well.
The Writer suddenly thought of someone in mind and limped over to her Life Story, taking several minutes to find her book. When he found it he produced his quill and was about to write an entry but stopped himself. It appeared, to his great fortune, that he wouldn't need to alter any of this person's plans at all.
She was about to do exactly what he wanted.
Fate is a cruel mistress indeed, he thought with a smile.
****
The annoying fairy sat on the ground, trapped in a block of ice, a fighter until the end. Across the room was the unicorn woman, asleep in a large bed. Her long, white hair framed her head like the rays of a white sun and her face was smooth and serene.
"You should have died in the street," Queen Svala growled, remembering how the unicorn had made a fool of her. No one made a fool of a queen, especially the Ice Queen! "I might not be able to kill Selvina but I certainly can kill you."
The queen of Sworden then began walking toward the bed, a dagger of ice clutched tightly in her right hand.