Queen Yavara Ch. 56

"You can't believe that. Not you."

"You were out there with me on those raids. How many women and children did we kill?"

"They're beasts!" She snapped, "Savages and animals! Look what they did!"

"What does that make us then? You've spent too much time around high-elves."

"You've spent too much time with monsters."

"I'm proud of what I am, and you're still ashamed."

"The only shame I feel is that I once respected you. You made me swear to protect our homeland on my life, and you sold it cheaply."

"I gave the Highlands EVERYTHING!" I roared, "I gave it my body, my blood, my love, and my life! Do you have any idea what I sacrificed?!"

"And so it's the Highlands turn to sacrifice for you?"

"YES!" I bellowed.

She narrowed her eyes at me like she couldn't understand who she was looking at, "What am I to you, Commander? Just an obstacle, a problem that needs to be solved so that you can get what you want. Every atrocity you committed on your way to me was worth it because it got you one step closer to your goal. But that's how you've always been, isn't it? Transforming didn't change you at all. You cut Prestira's throat and roped me to a horse so that I could be tortured, and you didn't even blink."

"I do what must be done."

"I also do what must be done, Commander." Elena hissed, "I'm not taking the crown, and I'm not calling off the attack on Alkandra. If I let that festering cancer live, it will spread to every corner of Tenvalia."

"Everything I love is part of that 'festering cancer.'"

"I know." Elena said, flexing her fingers around her sword.

I shook my head. "Don't do this, Tiger."

"You think I'm going to let you live after what you've done?"

"You don't stand a chance against me."

"If you kill me, then no one will call off the attack."

I nodded toward Lydia. "She could make a legitimate claim to the throne right now."

"And why would I ever betray my nation?!" Lydia asked indignantly.

"I'm sure I could convince you one way or another."

"Mom, go upstairs." Elena said, "Lock yourself in the royal guestroom, and don't come out unless I tell you to."

"But I—"

"Go, Mom."

Lydia chewed on her lip, then walked behind the throne, and disappeared up the corridor. I watched her go, then looked at Elena. "You're fucking your own mother?"

"Was it that obvious?"

"It was quite subtle, actually, but I have a sixth sense about these things." I said, stepping around her, watching her footwork, "So, now it's your turn to tell me what happened. You were supposed to be dead, and... what, it was all a ruse set up by you and Ternias?"

"I stayed loyal to Leveria to the end." Elena said, watching my shoulders, "When she was taken down, the other nobles and I formed a conspiracy, and here we are."

"Here we are." I echoed.

She glanced at my swollen belly, then back at my face. "That changes nothing for me, you know."

"I know." I said, and dashed toward her. She pivoted, ready for the swipe, but she wasn't ready for the dip and slash. I feigned the swipe, dipped my shoulder beneath her counterattack, and slashed across her belly. She made herself skinny enough to only suffer a flesh wound, then she rolled back, countered with a sudden leg swipe, and leapt to her feet.

"How many times did you tell me to look at your feet, not your shoulders?" Elena laughed breathily.

"Shoulders can be deceptive, but feet never lie, and you never learned."

"I learned a few things." She said, and made her move. She took three steps forward, then dragged her heel on the last one. I leaned into the feigned strike, ready to punish her for it, and realized a fraction too late that Elena had played me. While her weight was secured on her heel, her shoulders were pitched forward, and her foot rolled from heel to toe so quickly that all I could do was hold up my sword, and pray. She launched at me, and I bet left. My bet paid off, but the deep wound in my ribs limited my mobility, and she sliced me across the side. I rolled away from her with a grunt, and she slashed me across the back, prompting a cry of pain from my lips. I stumbled forward, and she slid backward. We turned around, and moved in a circle once more.

"That was new," I muttered, no longer smiling.

"I was saving it just for you," she smirked.

"I saw it coming."

She snorted. "Give me some credit."

"I would've blocked it if I wasn't wounded."

"Excuses, excuses," she tittered, "Didn't you always teach me to press every advantage?"

"I also taught you to be more talkative. That backfired." I said, and charged her. She shifted right, moved with me, drew up her sword and blocked my attack with lightning speed. She was fast, even faster than me, but she was decades behind me in technique. I scraped around her sword, guided our blades as I moved past her, then flicked them right before they parted. Her sword shot up, and mine shot to the side, and I drew a line across her ribs deep enough to feel the bone. She whirled after me, swiped back and down at where I'd been, but I was already five paces behind her, and pivoting on my foot.

Elena stayed remarkably composed despite the gash in her side. She cocked her head, and set her face.

"I see that pain has been a far better teacher than I ever was." I said, stalking around her.

"I suppose that makes me the master then."

I snorted. "What do you know about real pain, Tiger?"

She peeled her lips back to reveal a horrific smile. "Much more than you, Commander." She rushed me in a blur of blonde and bronze. I sidestepped the blow, and laid my blade across her back. She reached back to meet the counterattack, and caught my steel between her shoulders with her crossguard. She heaved forward with both arms, and I spun to keep my blade in hand. Twirling away, I guessed at the place she'd strike, and I guessed wrong. Hot pain seared into my leg when the cold metal entered it. I cried out, yanked my leg back, and rolled away to safety.

"We can count scars if you like," Elena said, "you can show me all the times you almost died, and I can tell you what it's really like!"

She rushed me again, feigned left, then right, then left again. Before she could make another feign, I charged into her. She was caught off guard, and I put my shoulder into her chest, and knocked her backwards. She managed to flip with her change of momentum, and her blade came out to dissuade my attack, but I sidestepped the swipe and sliced my steel across the back of her leg. She hit the ground, and I was on her, stabbing and jabbing as she scrambled backwards on her hands and feet. I scored a slice across her calf, and another that almost severed her patellar tendon before she rolled viciously to her side, and sent me reeling back with a slice that opened the bottom of my chin. She stumbled back into her stance, and I casually stepped back into mine.

"Come on, Tiger," I said, flicking her blood off my sword, "there's no reason for us to keep doing this."

"Then walk away, Commander."

I pointed to the wounds on her legs. "If we keep doing this, you won't be able to walk at all."

"And you won't be able to breathe!" She snarled, and again, she charged me. She was getting slower, every movement becoming calculated and labored. I caught her blade on mine, stepped away from her feeble leg sweep, and put my knee into her belly. She folded around me in a gasp, then crumpled to the floor.

I put my sword on her throat. "Good game, Tiger."

She looked down at the steel that rested just beneath her chin. "Finish it then."

"No."

"I won't call off the attack, Commander. You can make me scream if you want, but you'll never break me."

"Why would you think I'd ever do that?" I sighed, and knelt beside her. "Maybe you know pain like I can't imagine. Maybe you know death itself, but I've known love and life far greater than you ever have. It could be yours too. You're one of us. You're our lost sister. Come back with me, and after just one day, you'll realize what a fool you've been." I angled my blade against her artery, "I don't want to kill another sister, Tiger." I said softly, a tear rolling down my cheek, "Don't make me do it again."

I suddenly couldn't see out of my left eye. It took a moment for the pain to come. It shot right into my skull, burst in an explosion of synapses behind my ocular bone, and sent me reeling back with a screech. I clutched at my face, and felt the haft of a crossbow bolt where my left eye had been a moment ago. Through the red veil of agony, I looked up with my remaining eye, and saw a woman fumbling to load the second shot. Someone else screamed. I didn't know who it was at the time. All I knew was the horror that gripped me at the halving of my senses, and the directed primal instinct to destroy the threat. I raced across the floor, jumped over the throne, and put my sword into the woman's chest. Her eyes bulged, blood shot from her mouth, and she wilted beneath me.

"MOM!" someone screamed.

The woman gulped for air as red spit bubbled from her lips. I ripped the blade out, and she dropped to the floor. Something hot moved through me. My breath shot from my lungs. This time, I didn't feel the pain at all; only the impact. I looked down at the metal sticking through my breast. My entire back bowed around it, the severed muscles knotted, the punctured organs seized. Every neuron that had been screeching its alarm about my missing eye went suddenly silent, and instead blared the shrill warning of the death blow that had just been dealt to me. No... no, no, no, no, NO, NO, I would not die! I could not! Not for my unborn child! Not for Brianna, and Kiera, and Eva, and Faltia, and Soraya! Not for Furia. I needed to see her one more time. Just one more time. Just one... more... time...

The sun shone through the windows in heavy beams, casting the throne room in streaks of winter's cold luminance. I was in the shadows. I closed my eye, and made the transformation. The steel inside me snapped in half, the severed organs heeled, and my eye reformed. My body grew several feet, my skin became pallid and my hair became black, but I noticed none of that. The only thing I noticed, was that I was starving. There was a dying woman before me, but she was still so full of delicious life.

Something was smashed over the back of my head. I hardly noticed it, but I noticed it just enough for a bronze figure to flash in front of me, and steal my meal. I wheeled around to pursue, and I would've caught up to her easily, but I skidded to an abrupt halt before the sunbeam that separated us. Across the expansive hall, Elena Straltaira laid her dying mother in the center of one such beam. She said something to her, kissed her hand, and bowed forward in grief. Lydia ran her bloody hand through Elena's white hair, making it scarlet. Then, she went limp. Elena looked up at me. She didn't say anything now; she only grabbed the cleavers at her hips, stood up, and began jogging toward me.

"Don't!" I yelled.

She turned her jog into a run.

"Elena, stop!"

She turned her run into a sprint.

"STOP!"

She screamed, and jumped through the beam of light between us, her cleavers sparkling in the sunlight. She entered the shadow, and in the time it took for her to lower her blades a fraction, I snatched her out of the air, grabbed her by the wrists, and pinned her against the wall. I sank my fangs deep into her throat, and drank. I couldn't help it. I sucked through the capillaries in my fangs, and tasted the rich iron of her blood. So gluttonous I was, unable to stop once I had the taste in me. I swallowed, and swallowed, moaning in pleasure, savoring every last drop until Elena was frail and emaciated against me. Only when her heart had slowed to a crawl, did I find the mental fortitude to release her. She collapsed with a groan. She was nearly as pale as I was, and her lips were nearly as blue as her eyes, but still, she stared at me with such a pure hatred.

"I'm sorry, Tiger." I muttered. I extended my hand to the throne, and grabbed Ternias's hand mirror. I placed it in Elena's hand, and closed her strengthless grip around it. "I need you to call Field Marshal Shordian now," I said, "I'll explain everything to him. I just need you to give him the order to turn around."

Elena just stared at me, a string of drool coming from her lips.

I crouched down to her level. "It's almost over." I said softly, sliding her hair behind her ear, "You just have to do this one thing. Just this one little thing, and then you can rest."

Elena looked down at the mirror that rested loosely on her knee, then back up at me.

"Please, Tiger." I whispered, "There's no reason to fight anymore. You can save so many lives with just one honorable act."

She wheezed. The sound was so horrible that I didn't realize until it was too late that it was a laugh. I didn't realize until it was too late that there was a spot of sunlight a few inches left of Elena's knee. I didn't realize until it was too late that she'd put the mirror in it, and turned the glass toward me. Light. Light like fire burned into my eyes. I was blind again, my lenses seared, my irises scorched. I screeched. I clutched at my ruined eyes, and scrambled away from the pain. I heard laughter. The cruelest laughter I'd ever heard. It followed me wherever I went, and that horrible light did too, moving like a beam against me, scorching my face and neck, melting the backs of my hands as I tried to cover myself. Then, I was surrounded by it. My entire world ignited, and agony exploded from every pore. I shrieked, my voice broke, the blood shot from my ruptured throat. I couldn't feel my skin. I had no skin. I was muscle and sinew, all melting, all dripping and sizzling like fat upon the fryer. I dropped to my knees, covering myself with what was left of my arms, curling into a fetal ball as the inferno raged around me. Somewhere in my mania, I found the sanity to realize there was an escape. I turned back.

I blinked with my one eye, and stared up at the sun. The agony was gone. There was only an ache in my midsection, and a dull pain in my left eye-socket. I was so weak. Where there had once been excruciating heat, there was now uncomfortable cold. The sun felt so warm against my skin, and I wished to spread myself in it and bathe in its luminance, but I couldn't muster the strength to do so. I couldn't even uncurl myself from my fetal ball. I couldn't move at all. I was dying. The blood pooled from my chest, hot and thick, and every pump of my ruptured heart made the world darker and colder. Someone knelt beside me.

"Right pocket." I croaked.

"What?"

"Right pocket." I said again, conserving my words carefully.

Elena gave me an incredulous look, and fished into the remnants of my cloak. She pulled out Esmerelda's portal from my hip pocket. "What is it?" She asked.

"A magic seeker. It will take you to a woman with no limbs. She can open the royal portal to South Fort. Go there now. Go to Alkandra. Get our sisters out. Save them." I shifted my hand toward her. It took all my might. "Drag me into the shadow."

"No."

"Your mother is still breathing. I could hear it. I bite you. You bite her. One fang only, or hunger forever. Hurry."

Elena snatched my hand, and dragged me out of the sunlight with what little strength she had left. She swore and cried out, but she managed to inch me from the warmth, and slide me into the cold. She jammed her wrist in my mouth. I made the change. I lost my mind in the agony. I was blind. I screeched. I twisted and thrashed. Every movement was hell. There was something in my mouth. Life. I could feel it pulsing faintly. I bit. I tasted the life. I remembered whose it was—I remembered who I was. I injected my venom, and changed back. The world was so much darker than it had been even a moment before. It was so much colder too. I was vaguely aware of Elena undergoing her violent transformation. She writhed and wiggled as her limbs grew, her hair turned black, and her body filled out. When she was done, she was feral and mad with hunger. I expected her to end me right there, but she assessed me with one sniff, and walked right over me. As she ripped off the head of Ternias's corpse and drank the fountaining blood, I realized with comingled amusement and horror that she'd skipped me for a more bountiful meal.

When Ternias was nothing but a husk, Elena licked her lips, and took a deep breath. The sanity returned to her posture. She took one step toward her mother, then frowned at the light beam in front of her.

"Think: elf." I croaked.

Elena nodded, and squeezed her eyes shut. She transformed back into her elven form, then hobbled across the hall on her wounded legs. She fell to her knees, exhausted beyond measure, and she crawled the rest of the way to her mother. Once there, she pressed herself against her mother's side, let out a scream, and pushed with what was left of her strength. Lydia rolled out of the sunlight, and Elena collapsed in it. She looked hopelessly up at her mother's limp form. Even from across the throne room, I could see the puddle of blood that had formed beneath Lydia. It was growing. Elena stuck out her arms, and clawed her way forward. She cried out with the effort of it. She shook and spasmed, but inch by tortuous inch, she made her way out of the sunlight. I smiled, and closed my one eye. It was a good last sight to see.

As my breaths left my body, and my thoughts became dim, I put my mind to an image of Furia. She was lying next to me in bed. The others were there with us, surrounding us, encasing us in their love and warmth, but in that private moment, we only had eyes for each other. I just stared into her sapphire gaze, and she just stared back. A gentle smile creased her lush lips, which were parted slightly so that her breath could caress my mouth, leaving its taste upon my tongue. We didn't need to say anything. We didn't need to move. We could just lie there in that perfect moment, and stay for eternity.

ALKANDI

Yavara went still beneath me. Her orgasmic writhes ceased, her gasping breaths cut, and her flailing hair rested into a disheveled blonde mess atop her head. The form of our incarnation fell to its knees, then collapsed onto its side. Its body disintegrated into orange and blue dust, and floated towards us. The orange dust filtered into my bronze flesh, and the blue dust filtered into Yavara's alabaster skin. Leveria watched the process with bewilderment, then looked her sister in the eye.

"You with me, Yavara?" she asked.

"Yes, Leveria. I'm with you." Yavara whispered back, the exhaustion heavy in her voice. Though her insides still fluttered with pleasured contractions around my fists, they did not seize with virgin abandon. This woman now comprehended all that had happened to her and all that she had done—all that we had done—but no longer from our comingled understanding. She was not the frail infant devoid of all the experience we'd shared, nor was she the proud creature that had just died on the astral plane. She was who she had always been, but now she was it without me. She was the woman who had seduced then denied me in the astral plane that fateful morning when we'd first met as separate entities. She was weaker than she'd been when we were joined, but she was stronger than she'd been when I'd held half her soul hostage. She was just... Yavara.

Yavara turned around, her blue eyes sparkling from her pristine face. "Get out of me, Alkandi," she whispered.

I nodded, and slowly retracted my hands from her holes. They both prolapsed grotesquely, and she shuddered in abject delight, but she did not react with the fervency she would have if we were joined, nor did she squeal in horror like the half-woman she'd been before our merge was forever shattered. She just groaned pleasurably, reached between her legs, and toyed with her outturned parts before pushing them back into her body. Then, on shaking arms, she managed to push herself upright, and kneel opposite me.