• • Raydorn: The War in the Black
• November 10, 2024

Raydorn: The War in the Black (Chapter 67)

“I never considered it, but it makes so much sense. It is not children or heroes who have the most hope, it’s people like you, the insane, who do the same thing over and over again, hoping for a different result.”

Andelyn Stella, 448 A.C.A.

---

What do you supposed she has planned for us now? Andy asked the Light in her mind.

The collective that sat in the back of her head mused over the question as the portal opened in their fine cage.

Andy stood up, and did not wait for their answer. They gave it as she walked through.

‘To rob you blind,’ the Light told her.

When she exited, she found herself suddenly in a robe fit for a woman who is not her. 

Standing before stood a feast, laid out buffet style with servants ready to feed her and her host who eyed her like a lions.

“Oh fuck no,” she cursed out loud.

And that was before she noticed that the table was filled with her favorite foods, complete with fried salmon, griffin breasts, stir fry vegetables, teriyaki sauce, and white rice prepared Susannan style. 

Amidala sat in a toga-style robe to match Andy’s, fitted with gold embroidery and real gems atop purple linen. It looked like it was about to fall away from her with a whip of her hand.

The warlock arched her brow at Andy’s response to the sight of dinner, but that did not stop her from gesturing to one of her servants to pull out a chair for Andy.

“I don’t know why you’re surprised. I said to tell me what your favorite foods are for your last meal, and I would give them to you. You may have refused, but do I seem like someone so easily deterred?”

Andy did not answer, she only crossed her arms.

Amidala leaned back in her chair, and laid her delicately cut fingers across her forehead. “What can I say? You have been an excellent victim, and I would like to show my appreciation.” 

‘That is what she wants tomorrow-’

But I know damn well what she wants tonight.

The thought of it sickened Andy, but shocked her? Not as much as it should. She had met a number of men who thought to lord power over her or another in much the same fashion.

But for some reason she never considered someone of Amidala’s form trying to do the same, and so boldly before trying to murder her.

“And what exactly am I supposed to take away from all of this?” Andy asked. 

Amidala gestured to the chair across the long table from her. “That I am a woman of my word for one, at least for another woman.” 

Andy put on this big smile as her skin crawled. Her voice rose to a high pitch as she chimed, “Oh, that’s good to know.” 

Amidala ignored the tenseness of Andy’s voice, refusing the hints she’s refused many times herself. Instead, she clapped her hands at Andy, as if she were one of the servants. Where the others served food, Andy was supposed to be her entertainment.

“Well, chop chop, we go in a few hours.” 

Andy’s brow arched. “Say what?” 

“This is your last night alive,” Amidala told her, plain and simple.

The Light threatened to manifest, but Andy let her own rage smother the presence away.

She’ll bind me the moment you show your face, and I need to know more.

‘We only wish to protect you.’

You’ve proven enough already that you can’t.

“Tonight, after your delicious last meal, filled with your favorites, I will bring you to the gates of Jia, and there I will bleed you dry.” 

“Ah, alright.”

Then she took her seat. 

Amidala watched her with baited breath. It was only as Andy started to dig in, putting the food prepare for on her plant with one hand, and dug into it with the other, that the warlock slowly sat back in her chair, wide-eyed as if amazed because… 

Andy was ignoring her.

All this for her, and she couldn’t pay her host a second glance. Hate would have been acceptable, for it was an emotion with all of the energy worthy of Amidala, but apathy?

“The balls on you,” Amidala chuckled, struggling to decide between being amused and being annoyed.

Andy was well-focused one being the opposite of hungry.  

“You know, unless your talking about some kind of sportsball, balls are famously soft and vulnerable.” 

Amidala snorted in response, but paid the comment little mind. “You are truly strange, Andy. Still, on the eve of your death, you do not seem frightened. Don’t tell me… do you still have hope?” 

Andy continued to chew like the warlock wasn’t there. She went so far as to talk with her mouth full like she was less than a decade old and risking a scolding from her mother.

“What you call hope, I call confidence,” Andy said with a waggling gesture of her fork, “and overcompensating confidence at that.” 

“Ah, but you do have hope, does this mean that when it’s time to go, you’ll fight me?” 

Andy gulped down some food to answer as quickly as possible. The longer I pause, the greater the risk that Amidala will open her mouth again. 

“Of course,” she assured the warlock, “I’m disappointed that you expected anything less.” 

Amidala was rather quiet in the face of Andy’s defiance. It was both apathetic and inscrutable.

This was not something someone in Amidala’s position should be enjoying. By all means, defiance should spurn her rage, because so few have been brave enough to do it, especially out of anything other than fear.

When they run, that’s instinct, and there’s nothing to feel about that. Like any rabbit being chased by a wolf, the rabbit runs.

Andy was not running, so what did that make her? Amidala had never been posed such a question and it was making it difficult to be as angry as she knew she should be.

“Honestly, usually it makes me angry when they struggle, annoyed at the very least,” the warlock admitted, drawing an irksome roll of her captive’s eye, “but for you… I think I would be disappointed.” 

Amidala sat up straight and leaned over a table that still had several feet and dishes between her and Andy. Despite that, it felt as if she was placing herself in Andy’s face. If Andy didn’t know better, she would think the steam of her rice was the warlock’s own hot violating breath against her face. 

“I will grant you a heroic death,” the warlock promised, “and through the years that I will live after today, I will take the time to spread the tale of Andelyn Stella. A woman scorned by her family and her patriarchal society, who would not let her become the hero they needed. 

“I will tell them of how you fought for your life till the bitter end, to defend what so many people tried to take you. You will be known as one of my greatest foes.” 

Andy took a fork out of her mouth as she contemplated the idea. “Huh, go down in history as your greatest foe… that should be quite the honor.” 

Amidala tried to correct her, “One of-” 

But Andy had none of it. “No thanks, but…” with what feels to be one less bite of rice, she told Amidala, “thank you for this… this conversation, it’s been… enlightening. I don’t usually use big words like that, but getting to know you over a few days can be described as nothing else. 

“I’ve had a look into the mind of a madwoman… I’ve had a look into insanity… because you truly think this will work, despite no evidence for it, in fact, all evidence is against it. 

“I never considered it, but it makes so much sense. It is not children or heroes who have the most hope, it’s people like you, the insane, who do the same thing over and over again, hoping for a different result. 

“You will fail tonight like you have every night before, and it will never be any different… well, except for the fact that you will fail because of me and my friends.”

Andy’s monologue left the warlock in such a state that Amidala did not notice how her hands gripped the arms of her chair, and began to burn them so badly with her magic that it began to smoke.

But Andy was not done.

‘Heed caution, before danger heeds you, Stella,’ the Light reminded her, the hypocrites.

She did not mind them, and she did not mind Amidala’s seething rage over petty insults nor the confirmation that the only taste of flesh she could have had tonight, was the salmon Andy already ate. 

No, Andy let her fork fall and clang against the plate, drawing a twitching eye from the warlock, and thanked her. 

“But thank you for the food.”

The portal opened back up behind her, and Amidala nodded her out.

Andelyn stayed seated.

The warlock narrowed her eyes on her, trying to imagine what her captive could possibly be thinking. 

“I’ll leave when I’m good and ready,” she told Amidala, and began to scoop what was left over from dinner onto her plate.

Then she got up. 

“Now I’m ready.”

And then she left.

*****

“Goodbye, Little Stinky, make sure to eat all your vegetables while I’m gone,” Astrid told the big bird head with the body of a lion. 

“They’re carnivores,” Lucy reminded her, as she sat at the edge of the rock, “they don’t eat vegetables.”

“Do you know that for sure or you just guessing to sound smart?”

Lucy stopped swaying back in forth to ponder that question, and the answer she did not like.

The silence said it all.

‘Is it really the time to be antagonizing her?’

You’re kidding, right? She antagonized me first.

‘She did, but I expect more from you on the grounds that you can rise above and she’s… well… Lucy.’

You know, I know you’re playing me… but you’re right.

Astrid smacked her griffin on its bottom and it took off, the winds under its wing nearly blew her off the rock and into the water.

She stood with her hands on her waist as she looked up and watched the creature take to the sky. She waited until he was out of view. 

There was some worry about Little Stinky’s survival, having to hunt for food as a griffin born without claws, but the challenge didn’t make it impossible, just difficult. Astrid refused to show anything other than hope that her stead could overcome what is difficult.

Now she had to do the same.

She walked up to Lucy and told her, “I’m ready.”

The arch in Lucy’s brow told Astrid that the pirate was unconvinced, but how quickly Lucy changed into her completely bulbous octopus form, tentacles in all, was confirmation that she didn’t much care.

“The question is not whether I am truly ready, but whether or not you can swim us up the tunnel before I drown.” She slid down behind Lucy, letting the tentacles on her back wrap around her. 

As Astrid wrapped her own arms around Lucy’s neck, she whispered into the pirate’s ear, “Sink or swim, bitch.”

Lucy scoffed. “I can swim, bitch.”

Without further pressure, Lucy dived forward with Astrid holding tight without choking her. With her tentacle arms, legs, and those on her back, she took off like a rocket. With more limbs than a human has ever used before, Lucy propelled them down towards the underground opening, Astrid did her best to move as little as possible. 

She relaxed her muscles, knowing that tensing them up would use more oxygen. It was her hands that held onto each other like they were welded steel. 

While it would be smarter for her not to, considering her already decaying vision, Astrid opened her eyes under the saltwater to see what she could.

They were already in the tunnel.

‘Look at that, your prize is seeing nothing but darkness.’

Astrid groaned internally as she shut her eyes shut again. 

She was surprised that she didn’t feel the water pressure of the river weigh down on her, but she couldn’t feel with how fast Lucy was swimming either. It was like the sense of touch was blurred. Maybe Lucy’s swimming speed and force pushed the water pressure back and away from them. 

Better to be dragged along than crushed, Astrid thought to herself as she began to feel the burn in her lungs. Lungs devoid of air didn’t feel like anything else. The burning pain was different. It was rather sharp, like a knife, but it didn’t stab, it was like your nerves were being killed in superquick doses. That’s on top of the claustrophobic feeling of your lungs shrinking.

The fact that they were in the dark only threatened to make Astrid panic, tense her muscles, speed up the process of dying.

She wouldn’t know how close they are, whether she would have survived. For all she knew, this river ran underground for miles, and no matter how fast Lucy was, she couldn’t cover that distance, could she?

This is not how I pictured dy-

Plume!

Astrid took a loud gasp as she surfaced into darkness. The air was thin, hot, and it wanted to suffocate her as much as the water did.

But it was still air, and she was flying through it.

Before she was done even taking her first breath, she had let go of Lucy and took out her ax. She sent fire down towards the ground to make sure she wasn’t about to hit a bunch of spikes, and the brief second of light confirmed it for her. 

The next second broke her nose.

Smack!

Astrid the ground with a belly flop, feeling her nose crack the wrong way as she did so. 

“Aahhh…. Gawddd… fucking FUCK!” Astrid screamed as she held her nose, only to feel a sharp pain shoot through her arm. 

From then on she was biting her tongue every time she moved and found a new bone she bruised. 

Thankfully, her nose was the only thing broken, and at the speeds they were moving, she was more than lucky.

“Are you going to lay there all day?” Lucy asked Astrid. 

Astrid couldn’t quite tell where Lucy was, despite the fact that Kan Bujian was glowing on the ground beside her. She was all discombobulated, unable to snipe back at Lucy for her comment.

‘I don’t think I’ve seen you so embarrassingly injured before.’

Fuck OFF!

“Jeez, I’m only joking, thought you were tougher.” 

Astrid didn’t care that she accidentally said the loud part out loud. She was busy focusing on righting her nose. 

It’s been a long time since I’ve had to fix a nose.

‘Your nose has broken before?’

No.

The bruising over her body still hurt, but far less than the stinging, pain of her nose that was all but impossible to breath out of.

She slid her hands on either side of her nose, making it stab her with pain at the slightest touch.

Then came the swift crack.

CRICK!

“AAAAHHHHH!!!!!” she screamed. Righting her nose hurt as much as breaking it. The worst thing was that it would never be the same again.

It would heal back into place but it would never not be crooked now, and a little mishappen. Even more annoying for Astrid was how the blood caked the inside of her nose and over her lips. 

I guess I’m not using my nose today, she told herself, internally punching herself for forgetting a handkerchief.

“If you’re done rolling around on the ground, you might want to see this,” Lucy called to Astrid.

Astrid sniffed, only to feel more pain. It was like there was no way to move her face without her nose hurting like a mother-fucker. Still…

… the show must go on. 

Despite the pain she was in and Lucy seemingly wasn’t, Astrid sat up with her ax in hand, and called on it to bring light to the cavern. 

It wasn’t particularly wide, with few hazards around it. The risk came mostly from the water that was rushing down a slope like a water fall. 

This water must have had more water at some point, Astrid wondered, because why else would there be enough room to walk? It could only be erosion in a world with gods, meddlesome and not.

Astrid considered this when she flashed her light, irritating Lucy’s eyes and brightening up the wall all at the same time. 

On that wall, lied cave drawings with details and colors neither of them had ever seen before, let alone on a cave’s wall.

It immediately begged the question of who drew the art work, and how they could have found the time to add so much detail in the dark.

These details begin with a people painted in white, with clothes of gold and lime leaving a burning hellscape through a portal. That much was easy to decipher for Astrid, especially after dealing with Amidala.

She looked back to see what they were running from, and at first, it looked just a mass of darkness. The light from the axe was barely better than a torch. Rather than give Astrid enough light it was too much, and made the details hard to see.

But Astrid eventually made out the details, and saw what looked to be a collection of white feathers, all descending on these people. The feathers had spears, swords, knives, and weapons that Astrid couldn’t recognize. 

But she could tell that they were descending upon these people from the skies, and in the sky above them all stood one pair of golden wings, with a mighty warhammer. It was leading whatever these feathers were down upon these pale white people.

Then she went back to the people who went through the portal, and out into a forest they came, which seemed…

Well, that’s kind of generic.

At least she thought that until the the drawing had monsters descending upon them.

Well, now I feel like an asshole.

Then came the light.

“Don’t just stand there looking, tell me what you see,” Lucy told her.

Astrid turned, and shined the light in Lucy’s eye, forcing the pirate to turn away. “Just look at it yourself.”

“I can’t because of your axe. I can see better in the dark than with the light of the fucking sun trying to burn out my eyes!”

Astrid looked at her ax, and considered for a moment how unfazed she was by the bright light. She had used it to blind others before, but she never really considered how she never seemed to be affected. Was she immune to its effects?

‘Likely, but also it’s definitely making you blind, especially since you refuse to get glasses.’

Fuck off.

“Fine, sure, I’ll explain it to you, you big baby.”

“You’re flashing me with the light of the sun, I have every right to bitch.”

“Bitch baby,” Astrid muttered as she went back to the painting. “You saw the feather things attacking the people, right?”

“Yeah, and the whole portal thing with the dark forest and shit.”

“Okay, from there…” Astrid trailed off as she found where she left off. “It looks like they were in some kind of forest and attacked by monsters. Ring any bells?”

“What kind of trees are there?” Lucy asked.

Astrid pursed her lips and did a double-take. “Kind of trees?”

“Yeah, asshole, if they’re tall and green, drawn like pinecones, it’s probably the Ragnar next door in Raydorn. If it’s more like a jungle, it could be the Hazarus in Krone.”

Astrid’s lip stopped moving, confronted with the fact that she may indeed have to give it to Lucy. Then again… Why wasn’t the Ragnar the obvious choice? We’re literally right next to it? 

She kept that to herself because she didn’t have any options.

“Well?” Lucy asked.

“Can’t tell.”

Astrid keep looking and went back to this light in the shape of a snarling… woman? It had long flowing, golden hair, but the mouth was red with these long sharp fangs. Even her nails appeared gangly.

“There’s this weird creepy woman with light coming from her.”

“It’s definitely the Ragnar, that’s Almulan.”

Ohhh… I can see why they drew her like a monster.

‘That’s my aunt.’

Your aunt is a sunslaying bitch.

‘He tried to kill me.’

That’s what the stories say.

‘I… I can’t… what?’

“Yeah, she has some gnarly teeth here,” and in looking over a just a bit, “she’s attacking them, with these walking beards at her feet, following her.”

“The Torkkic Clans, savages that live in the Ragnar. Raydorn has been trying to get rid of them since they moved in here.”

“How do you know all of this?”

“I was raised in Krone most of my life,” Lucy reminded her, “Raydorn was created by people who left Krone, so Kronish children are made to learn all about the gods who stole away their people, and the traitorous houses who helped them do it.”

While Astrid didn’t care much for the Kronish pantheon or whatever they were teaching in their schools. She couldn’t help but feel a sharp rise in the back of her throat at the sight of Almulan. 

‘She was trying to protect me.’

In doing so she killed so much more… 

“From what I remember, she’s supposed to be the Goddess of Light. The Torkkic Clans and Raydorn both pray to her or something, probably for the harvest like sailors do Thassa.”

“You say that like you don’t do anything of the like.”

“I know better than to think anyone other than the ocean is trying to drown me. I’m not giving credit to something I can’t see.”

Astrid snorted at the pirate’s remark, as if it were arrogant to not believe in something that she had never seen. Lucy had made much a similar snort listening to Astrid speak of a god she claimed to hear.

“The weird thing is, I don’t remember her being a warrior,” Lucy told Astrid, “is she really leading them into battle?”

By the look of the falling drawings, of this monstrous goddess raining down heavenly hellfire upon these strange people… “Yes, I would say she definitely is.”

‘I don’t remember any of this.’

Why would you? Genocide isn’t something you gloat about if you’re smart.

“Don’t be so shocked,” Astrid told Lucy as she pulled away from the sophisticated cave drawings, “she is the same goddess who struck down Solicki.”

“Solicki?” Lucy asked.

So they didn’t teach the wyvern about Susanna?

“The true God of Light, the God of the Sun himself.”

“Sounds like a bitch if he gotten taken out by a farmer.”

Astrid let the light dim as she told Lucy to, “Shut up.”

As her ax dimmed to be just enough to walk, but not enough to blind Lucy, Astrid thought on the cave drawings. They seemed important, but they were not what she was there to find. From the looks of it, it was just more hardship and heartbreak, with these people separating across the planet. 

The planet is a lot bigger than I thought.

‘Does that surprise you?’

At first, but the feeling of surprise rarely lasts long.

Astrid was about to walk away from the cave drawings with Lucy called her back. “Where are you going? There’s more!”

“But none of it has to do with why we’re here.”

Lucy snapped her fingers at Astrid, beckoning her to light her ax back up. “I’m not so sure, just skip ahead.”

“Pretty sure you’re supposed to read the whole book to understand the ending, but I also like not following the rules.”

“You don’t need to say every thought that comes to your head.”

Astrid muttered her curses at Lucy under her breath, and went to see what the pirate was looking at.

When she looked at the last image on the wall before the story seemed to restart, there were several groups splitting off. Some seemed to spread out through the forest, to a death they already knew, while others sailed across what Astrid could assume was the Secan Sea.

It was the third that seemed the most relevant to her. A group of people standing before an altar and a door. The drawing was positioned where she was facing the front of this large circular gate, with light spewing out of it. 

Standing small before the light were the strange pale people walking past an altar into what could easily be identified as a portal. What lied on the altar could also be identified as a bleeding corpse. 

Multiple bleeding corpses, in fact.

It didn’t take much thinking for Astrid to put it all together. If they were correct in that Andy was some kind of descendant of these people, and that Amidala was truly bringing here…

“Astrid,” Lucy asked, “what are the odds that a sacrifice is what opens the gateway?” 

Astrid was rarely hesitant to answer a question she knew the answer to, but this time being right felt like a curse. “I’m not expert in history… more of an expert in bullshit, and that line of thinking… doesn’t smell too bad.” 

“You could have just said, ‘good odds,’ ‘good thinking,’ or ‘sounds about right…’ there were so many things better than a metaphor about shit.” 

Astrid heard the crack in Lucy’s voice, betraying her fear. Whether it was for them or Andy, Astrid did not know, but despite knowing what they did… the fear was strangely comforting. 

Fear was natural, and to be anything but natural was to be walking in at less than their peak. Such a mistake could spell death, for them, and their friend.

“I will not be tamed,” Astrid mocked, wagging her finger before Lucy, trying to pretend that they were in control, but as she said it, it felt hollow. Lucy’s expression wavered, her fear unable to be contained, and Astrid’s own will was faltering.

No, it’s better to be truthful to one’s self, even in the face of the worst, than it is to lie to one’s self. 

Astrid rested her ax on her shoulder and declared through the fear, “I will not lose my friend, which means we should hurry to find out if I’m right.”

‘Astrid, there’s something off about the paint on the walls, but I wasn’t sure until now.’

What do you suggest?

‘Rest her your axe against the, and let it ignite.’

As Astrid turned to face the way up, she rested her axe against the wall. 

As she did so, Lucy asked, “We’re about to follow this cave up through the mountain aren’t we?” 

With tightening of her grip, the ax ignited, and the paint lit itself on fire. The paint didn’t dissipate, rather it shined, crackled, and popped, before causing a chain reaction that sped across the cave walls.

The paintings before them and behind them were burning and brightening their way. One could say that history itself was on fire just to show Astrid and Lucy the way.

Astrid looked back to the pirate over her shoulder, and answered, “Yes, Lucy, yes we are.”