• • Raydorn: The War in the Black
• December 29, 2024

Raydorn: The War in the Black (Chapter 69)

“When have we ever been lucky?

Lucilla Indu Nero,  448 A.C.A.

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“I fucking hate tunnels, I hate rocks, I hate stupid tunnel echos, I hate nasty swampy smells, I fucking hate them!” Lucy screamed as she stumbled into the light. 

She and Astrid had been walking so long that the pirate had begun to believe she was losing her mind. Hours of walking, periods of silence, and the occasional incessant muttering from Astrid left Lucy wondering which was worse: a woman who wouldn’t talk or a woman who wouldn’t shut up.

The answer is Astrid, Lucy thought to herself.

Despite her misgivings, Astrid was the only reason Lucy did not wander off a cliff.

The pirate did not let her eyes adjust and kept walking forward as the light blinded her. It wasn’t until her last step fell through nothing that she considered that they were walking up a mountain. 

Astrid grasped her by the collar of her shirt and pulled her back onto the cliffside. Or rather, the cult leader threw the pirate flat on her ass. She landed with a thud, and most certainly bruised her tailbone.

Lucy’s groan of frustration sounded like a roar, which was ironic considering the way she rubbed her eyes made her look like a toddler.

“Did you have to-!”

“Yes,” Astrid answered without needing to hear the rest of the question.

Lucy stopped rubbing her eyes to stare up at the smirking Astrid. “God, you’re such a little-”

Pew.

The sound of light bursting towards the sky wasn’t the loudest noise, but it stood out. It wasn’t a naturally occurring sound on this planet. It was something so strange and unnatural that stopped the two women from taking their next breath.

The first thing they noticed was just down the cliffside ahead of them, a mountain peak that was wider but shorter than the rest. It was just short enough that they could see where the light began, but wide enough that they could not see over its top. 

The second thing they noticed was how they heard nothing else but their own lack of breathing since the light burst into the sky. Then they couldn’t help but think about how it slowly turned lime green.

Silence was something many adults would be thankful to experience, but so high in the mountains it was unsettling. There was no gust of wind, no aching sounds of rocks sliding downhill, or soft dewey snow softly hitting their skin. There was nothing to be heard, it was as if the world had stopped.

The only thing they could smell was each other, and the air itself was easier to breath in than it should have been.

There was no longer any time to bicker, for someone it was do or die, and if they didn’t move, they would be too late.

Astrid paid Lucy the kindness of pulling her to her feet with one strong tug, before taking off down the path in a sprint. Lucy spoke nothing of Astrid’s roughness, and did her best to keep pace. 

Lucy took in the peaks of the Soday Mountains from the top. This was the first time she had ever been so high above the earth. It made sense that she had never climbed so high, she spent most of her time below sea level, where few brave men dared to tread.

Had it not been for the urgency of their mission, she would have liked to take a gander at the beauty, but alas, life was in the way. How horrific life was that it allowed some people no time to remember the sights others dreamed about. Life just had to gift them with tough times instead.

Lucy began to lag behind as Astrid traversed the cliffside with easy. Lucy had to race behind her, while also making sure not to die at the same time. As they got closer, they coud hear loud, painfilled groans, and the sound of a demonic voice chanting. 

The two of them knew not what they were walking into. 

“If we’re lucky, Quintus and Jack have found their way there first!” Lucy called to Astrid.

“We’ll be lucky if they found a way here at all!” Astrid yelled back as they hit the bottom of a hill. 

On grassland, a hill wouldn’t seem so daunting. There’s so much in the way of traction. It’s not the same with rock, especially with a cliff at the bottom. 

But Astrid was eager to conquer it all the same. She spit in both of her hands and was ready until a tentacle wrapped around her waste.

Lucy wasted no time growing out her extra appendages, and transforming into a complete beastman. She picked Astrid in one arm and used the strength of her tentacles to hold them both up, while the suction cups on each of her arms kept them from falling back. 

She all but conquered nature, to Astrid’s begrudging approval. 

Their mutual animosity took a back seat to the horrific painting before them. They could see the glowing light standing still like a wall, yet vibrating as light passed through it. 

It would be beautiful if it wasn’t the warning of terrible things to come, Lucy thought. The pillar of lime green light was the only bright spot in a barren valley, or what remained. 

The land looked like it had life extracted out of it, with what appeared to be dirt that had solidified into a stone like substance. There was expansive room, perfect for camp, if the land itself had appeared as unstable as a century old wooden bannister, threatening to collapse. It couldn’t even quite be called a valley anymore, when a third of the bordering cliffside collapsed into a casm. 

Everything had been taken from this land, and more was to be taken yet.

But what was happening at its base was nothing short of foreboding, and also pacifying to Lucy.

Atop an altar, stood their dreaded enemy in the warlock, with a bloodied knife in her hand, and blood dripping down it.

At the same time, the Aurora Knight dragged a loud, abrasive, vulgar Andy across the cold hard ground, and towards a hole in the light shaped like a person.

Their friend was still alive, for now, but the fate that was in store if they failed was likely worse than they were imagining.

“I say we jump the knight, grab Andy, and book it,” Lucy suggested first.

Astrid climbed up and start sliding down the slope. Lucy leaped after her, just as Astrid said, “Won’t work when he’s faster than both of us!”

Then why did jump ahead, you psycho?!”

“We need to rush Amidala now, while she’s distracted by whatever the ritual is!” Astrid called over her shoulder. 

They were still far enough away that Amidala or the Aurora Knight was unlikely to hear, but at the same time, they started to develop this ringing in their ear as they struggled to hear each other.

“If we’re lucky, Kion will be freed!”

Lucy asked Astrid, “When have we ever been lucky?”

“When we weren’t paying attention.”

What does that even mean?!

Lucy scanned around the area for escape routes as they were close to reaching the bottom. Going into this fight completely outclassed could mean nothing short of death, and Lucy was who she was.

A coward can live to be a coward another day, but most only get to be brave once in this life. 

As formidable as Astrid and Lucy were, the warlock and the Aurora Knight were the two most powerful monsters in Raydorn, and arguably the continent. They were not going to be enough.

Not that it would make much of a difference, but if I’m going to die, I’d rather die with-

The moment Astrid reached the foot of the hill, Lucy was right behind her, but two portals beat her to it.

Multiple portals in fact.

All around the murdered valley, portals began to open, and from them random objects fell out. There were puddles of water with fish, rocks crashing to the ground, grass and dirt, unidentifiable junk, and some with nothing coming out of them at all. 

Two of them, released some rather helpfu friends.

Quintus came through a portal that was half the distance to the warlock already, and far away from the Aurora Knight. He landed with his feet and his fist on the ground, and as he rose it was with a vacant stare. The stare only lasted for a moment as shock and confusion were nothing less than natural, but Lucy had not missed it.

Jack landed with a thud rather close to Andy and Lucy, and landed hard enough on his injured leg that he screamed in pain. “Fuck!” He didn’t even realize what he had done as he gripped his limb. “Just when I thought that my foot was getting better.”

The element of surprise was gone as Amidala’s glowing eyes turned away from the Aurora Knight halfway through chaining up Andy, and to Andy’s allies.

Planning proved rather useless when the world was so experienced with setting people up for failure.

Yet, Quintus wasted no time making a rush for the warlock, whose eyes were already on him.

Seeing Quintus with her should have filled Lucy with joy, or maybe a sense of confidence, maybe even a bit of safety, but she felt none of that. She only felt fear, but it was different from the usual gaping hole in her stomach. The fear she felt then was filling, enough to make her throw up…

… and it was because Quintus was there.

This new fear taught Lucy a valuable lesson… that she didn’t understand everything that fear could be.

*****

Astrid immediately yelled at Jack, furious that this new spell gave away the element of surprise. “What?! Why did we split up if we were going to end up in the same place at the same time?!” 

If I knew this was gonna happen, we would have just come all at once. Then we would have had the element of surprise to start!

“Wait, I thought that was the plan?!” Jack yelled back as she needed to pull him to his feet. His Iligsia had done so much to speed up the recovery of his leg, and with a simple fall, it was already slowing him down again.

Astrid pushed him forward and he immediately started using the wind to pick himself up. 

Quintus was already launched back by a dispassionate fireball lobbed at his feet.

He flew over both of their heads as Astrid complained, “Yeah, I didn’t think we’d get here at the exact same time!” 

Amidala’s eyes were sunken with the exhaustion that came from rolling them too hard. “I thought your friends were supposed to be amusing, Andelyn. I knew they were idiots, but there’s nothing funny about it!” 

Amidala had summoned her scepter back to her, not even calling for the Aurora Knight. She let him continue to lock Andy in place and started walking to kill the intruders herself. 

As she stepped down the old stone stairs of the altar, Astrid and Jack blocked her way at the foot of the stairs.

“What, no witty one-liner this time?” she taunted them both as they tried to think through their next move. 

Quintus and Lucy were coming up behind them, but the portals hadn’t yet calmed down behind them. 

This was not the time to be first in line. I need to come up with a plan.

‘But you’re not the plan person.’

I don’t need you reminding me of that. I’m here for when the plan needs fixing.

‘Can’t fix what you don’t have.’ 

Astrid ignored Lapis amd muttered to Jack, “We need to buy time, distract her.”

The warlock arched her brow at that comment. “I heard you-”

“Did you just call her ‘Andelyn?’” Jack called out without missing a beat. 

Amidala’s eye twitched. “How did you even hear-”

“What kind of witch do you think you are? Her mother?!” 

Amidala let out a rather loud gasp, garnering a rather confused expression from Astrid in turn. “Excuse me, how old do you think I am?!” 

I guess that hit a little closer to home than anyone would have thought.

Based on the look on Jack’s face, he didn’t expect it either, but he kept going. “You knew my father so I would have guessed pretty old.” 

Amidala’s jaw nearly unclenched, but she righted herself and readied her magic. 

No, I still don’t have any ideas!!

The warlock’s eyes glowed, before she asked, “How… who are you again?” 

“Are you-!” 

“Huc.” The warlock interrupted him with one magic word and pulled him straight towards her. 

Astrid panicked and started racing up the stairs as Jack found himself face-to-face with the enemy, unable to move. 

“Oh, I remember you now,” Amidala taunted him, her eyes slowly changing from a familiar white glow to the same vibrating green of the portal beside their battleground. 

Amidala took Jack by the chin in her hand and made sure to enunciate each vowel just to profusely spit in his face.

“You’re lover boy, aren’t you? And speaking of lovers, oh Kion!” 

With a flick of her wrist, she sent Jack flying. She released her hold on him in time for Kion to jump up and smack him to the ground.

But Jack wasn’t Amidala’s concern anymore, the axe coming for her face was. She raised the staff of her scepter to block the invisible axehead coming her way, with more magical power flowing off of her by the second. 

Clang!

As the mystical staff met a blade of the so-called future, Amidala’s skin radiated a gaseous glow that matched the portal. 

It probably was already a safe assumption, but there’s more to that green wall than a portal.

‘I’ll refrain from commenting on how you state the obvious.’ 

The last time Astrid and Amidala met, Astrid proved her mettle against the warlock’s own, but Astrid’s arms were shaking as they tried their might against the warlock. 

Amidala took a step forward and Astrid was forced to take one back.

The only thing that wasn’t glowing from Amidala, was her teeth as she told Astrid, “Just you and me now, madwoman, and I’m not plastered this time!” Amidala whipped out her scepter, and sent Astrid tumbling back down the stairs she came. 

She was brought low by this woman yet again, left to look up at her like she did when she was a child. But this time, she truly appeared like the monster she was.

Amidala’s gaseous glow consumed her in this opaque mist, turning her into the visage of a wraith.

For the first time since she was a child, Astrid felt something she hadn’t had reason to feel before. Before, there was never much to lose, but who she was losing to never mattered. Only one living person could ever claim to live in Astrid’s mind without paying a royal tax. Even Lapis paid her with his conversaion.

But Amidala leaving with her mother as she towered over the small child was a sight Astrid has never been able to unsee. 

And now that visage was before her again, but unlike last time, she had an ax.

As Lucy and Quintus finally got to her side, Astrid found that she no longer wanted them there. She’s tasted blood in her mouth before, but Astrid has only ever hunted for one person before.

“Lucy, go get Andy out of the wall, Quintus, go help Jack before his boy toy kills him.”

“And leave you alone with her?”

“I’ve waited my whole life to be alone with her.”

“Oh?” Amidala called from above. 

“Get going,” Astrid growled to them both, “the others don’t have as much time, and I promise, I’m going to take my time gutting this witch. I’ve come so close before.”

“But-” 

Lucy cut off Quintus. “She’s right, the faster we help the others, the faster we can come back. Andy needs us more.”

Quintus looked to his lover, and then back to his friend. Astrid wasn’t meeting his eye, but that in itself told him enough.

The determined look in Astrid’s eye as she took hold of Kan Bujian with both hands was one that Quintus had never seen in her before. There was a storm in her that he knew nothing of, and would not stand in its way.

“Good luck,” he told her. 

She grunted in response. She didn’t even notice when he and Lucy were gone, following her orders.

She only saw Amidala take a shot towards one of them and she sent her fireball at the warlock.

She hit the warlock’s hand, surprising her more than harming her.

Amidala turned and gave the short woman her full, undivided attention. She held her burning hand towards Astrid as she looked down from on high, and showed her how her power smothered out the flames of the sun.

“I heard you say that you want to take my head,” Amidala reiterated to her, as she took her first step down towards her, “and then you try to stop me from protecting my snare.

“So tell me this, because you are not the little girl I remember, the one who cowered in a shed, gasping for clean air that would never come. No, you wear her face, but you are not her, so tell me…

“Who dares strike at me?”

Astrid took her first step towards Amidala, and then another. “Me? I am simply me.” Then Astrid breaks into a run. “I am the one who dares.”

Amidala lets loose a funnel of fire from her hand, and Astrid swings her ax into it.