The Shadow Queen's Wrath

"Hold." Dante placed a hand on Jarn's shoulder as he looked straight ahead. "I surrender myself peacefully." He slowly crouched down and lowered his blade to the ground before he raised his arms up in surrender. "No need for bloodshed."

"What are you--!?" Jarn started with eyes full of surprise.

"It's alright." Dante walked towards the guards.

"Have you lost your mind!?" Jarn screamed.

Dante looked over his shoulder at Jarn. "It'll be fine. We're here to be diplomatic, right?" Dante smiled. He glanced at Sir Jean who lowered his gestured hand, stopping whatever spell he was preparing to cast.

"Damn it, boy..." Jarn huffed before he clenched his teeth with balled, trembling fists. A throbbing vein appeared on his temple as the men surrounded Dante and grabbed his arms from both sides. "Damned fool!"

"It'll work out, somehow," Dante grinned as he was escorted away down the hall.

"I will talk to King Byron!" Jarn yelled. "I will sort this out and get you out of this!"

As Dante and the guards make their way through the castle with the collective echoing steps resounding all around the otherwise silent trek, Camille stood with eyes full of distress. She stepped back from the guards and their prisoner as they passed her. The young brunette placed a hand to her heart; she looked on with worry as both she and the young warrior locked eyes.

"Dante..." Camille called out softly as her lips trembled. "No... You didn't..." As she watched him leave she lowered her head and held her hands together to her chest.

They made their way to a lonely reinforced oak door at the end of an empty hallway in an isolated part of the castle. Two men stood vigilant on both sides with pikes at hand.

"Open the door, we have a prisoner." The head guardsman spoke.

The heavy door creaked open into a rocky staircase leading down into darkness only dimly illuminated by the dull orange glow of sparsely lined torches.

"Move."

Dante was pushed forward as he and his company entered the dark passage downwards. The door shut behind them with a resounding thud that reverberated through the castle halls. The closed door sealed those who entered into the darkness inside from the outside world. The dank smell of must and damp earth filled the dimly lit air around the dirty, unkempt and narrow halls. The stench of decay and filth lingered in the air and became stronger the further they navigated through the cramped spaces that made for the underbelly of the castle above. They stopped in a small room of solid iron doors with small windows of metal bars.

"Get inside." The guardsman ordered as the door they led the warrior to opened into pure darkness.

Dante was shoved inside. A loud crash echoed in the air as the door closed behind him with a click, trapping him in an almost pure pitch black world; the only source of light was from the dim orange glow that escaped through the small door window from the dark, rough stone hall outside. Dante felt his way around his surroundings as his eyes slowly became used to the dark. The room was cramped; if he laid flat across the damp floor of earth and rock his head and feet would almost touch both sides. He found a thin straw bedding and sat down on it. He brought his legs into half lotus position and brought his hands together as he took in a deep, composed breath in. He could do nothing but wait.

Liara sighed as she reached the inner courtyard. In the back was the Obsidian Keep, a lonely black tower within the Shadow Palace that served as the abode of the Shadow Lord, her father. The Shadow Palace was, what she considered, a relatively beautiful place. It was even peaceful and calm at times despite the haunts that sometimes stalked the halls late at night, but the Obsidian Keep was different. Every time she saw it or walked near it made her skin crawl. An unfamiliar aura of foreboding and lifelessness always emanated from it. The black presence that was both unwelcoming and hostile seemed aware.

The world whenever she stood near it became dull, cold, and colorless. The dark, gloomy miasma that hung from its walls sucked the warmth, vitality, and any hope from all who approached the tower. The finality of the awaiting grave surrounded everyone in its ambiance from the cold air of the underworld emanated from the evil keep.

The Obsidian Keep was a portal, a link between the living world and the underworld. The dark structure served as the entrance to the True Shadow Palace, the true abode of Liara's father, Nu'kaili Nu'rothuat, Shadow Lord, Black Sorcerer King, the almighty God Emperor of the Nu'rathi nation. With the blessing of the Shadow Lord and the mysterious Dark Ones, one entered through the Black Gates into the welcoming chambers beyond. But, all unworthy or uninvited found themselves in the inhospitable labyrinthine dungeons reserved for the worst of traitors and most hated enemies of the empire instead, where escape was unheard of, and death was certain.

As Liara walked to the grand Black Gates, she shuddered. The darkness around the tower welcomed her in as it hummed with a strange force that distorted the air around her. Something that came from it, something predatory and unknown clawed from the back of her mind. It subtly worked to lull her into a despairing sleep, to find the opportunity to invade her mind. She felt its intention to leave her soul an empty husk the moment she dropped her guard.

In front of the gate she saw a gathering of dark elf women, all of the Black Widow Sisterhood. As she walked by all the women collectively turned to look at her.

"Did you have your fun?" Maata'ra whispered sweetly as Liara walked by and ignored her. "Little bitch."

"Sister Liara. How nice for you to join us, finally," Queen Jandala, one of the Nu'kaila, called out.

Shadow Queen Jandala was the mother of her half-brother, Prince Numos. She was a beautiful dark elf woman with night-black waist-length hair and a long black dress. Nearly every inch of her cloudy white skin, from her arms and cleavage to her neck and face, was completely decorated with jeweled chains, pearls and gems. A gilded necklace with an obsidian stone bearing the mark of the Black Widow Sisterhood rested on her cleavage. She was renowned as one of the most potent of dark magicians in the Sisterhood, perhaps even amongst the entire empire.

"Queen Mother Jandala... How are you?" Liara tilted her head down with a coy smile.

"How am I? Wonderful. How would anyone not be on this grand day, my dear?" Queen Jandala looked up with tranquil eyes. The Nu'kaila's thin, black painted lips spread into a serene smile, though her light gray eyes remained blank as if staring at nowhere. "Knowing that we will soon be standing before the almighty... kind... beautiful... perfect Nu'kaili... To be graced by his presence... To receive his great providence."

"Right..." Liara trailed off and scratched her arm.

"You do not feel the same way, Sister Liara?" Queen Jandala held her head up with half shut eyes full of joy. She raised her arms until the long, flowing sleeves of her dress draped down by her sides. "Do you not feel the blessings of his benevolence smiling down on us...? Especially here in this sacred ground? Lulling us to a comforting dream...? Embracing all around us with his love...? Taking our pain away... How would one not feel ecstasy standing near his divinity?"

"Indeed, why not," Liara scratched her cheek.

"You would not be so blasphemous enough as to deny the greatness of the Black Sorcerer King and take for granted the gifts of your Lord? Your own father?" Queen Jandala's vacant eyes hinted at offense. "Especially, as he was ever so gracious to gift you the highest honor of becoming the recognized adopted daughter of the High Queen Mother herself. Our beloved Shilagami, Queen of the Spider Cult, goddess of our very order... Your mother..."

"... Of course not..." Liara sighed and flicked her gaze to the side, as she crossed her arms. That evil, inhuman monster bitch was not her mother. She will never be my mother... Ever.

Liara looked up to see all the other women around her looking at her intently. Queen Jandala stared with eyes so wide open they could have fallen from their sockets. She held a finger pointed accusingly at Liara as her upper lip trembled.

The princess shrunk back a little as the queen snarled at the sight of Liara's hairpiece, "that... thing on your head! Our emperor graciously bestows your life a second chance, unworthy as you are. He saves you from a worthless destiny of dying a lowly traitor's daughter... and this is how you repay his mercy? You'd spit on your gracious father's and your mother's kindness rather than show her your undying gratitude for your redemption? You defile this sacred ground by wearing the keepsake of a traitor! Parading it so brazenly rather than burning it...! You ungracious, disrespectful child! Are you the loyal daughter of our revered High Queen Mother and our divine empire? Or are you the daughter of a traitor? Choose."

"Queen Moth-- no... Jandala..." Liara, with a clench of her fists, returned a cool smile, while she struggled to keep her temper in check from the zealous bitch in front of her. "I need you to understand one thing for me, Jandala... your opinions on what I choose to wear, or how I should think, I really could care less. And don't talk to me about my personal affairs unless I say it's alright. My business, my life, and who my mother is...? None of that is your concern. Understood?"

The judgmental eyes of all the women around her fell on Liara as some spoke in hushed whispers and others just stared silently. She did her best to hide her anxiety and isolation by standing as defiantly tall as she could with her chest puffed with regal authority. The princess locked eyes with Jandala whose cool appraising eyes stayed unmoving on Liara's challenging glare. A vicious smile spread like a creeping slug across the queen's mouth.

"Some may view those statements as a public declaration of treason worthy of execution," Jandala chuckled dryly as her chin lifted slowly. "Or take that petulant attitude as a challenge. Do you truly wish to test me, child? Well? You would be wise to consider your next words well..."

"Oh?" Liara maintained her defiant stare as she kept her eyes locked with the shadow queen. The princess gave a cheeky grin and stuck her tongue out. "You may go to hell then."

"So... that's how it is," Jandala's smile widened into a twisted, eager grin as her icy gaze flashed with sadistic glee. Jandala's blank eyes became consumed by two deep, black, hollow spaces that collapsed into an impossibly deep void as the already cold and unfriendly air became darker. A soft, unsettling whisper dripping with malice rang in Liara's mind. A challenge it is, then... If you wish for the same fate that worthless woman met, I may gladly grant it for you, if you so desire.

Liara took a cautious step back from the twisting form of the inhuman monster formerly known as Jandala. The air around the wicked grinning beast turned to writhing darkness as a black miasma seeped from her lengthening fingernails, hollowed eye sockets, and her smiling mouth that widened into a corpse-like grin as her cheeks sank in. All around the princess was a maddening ambient desire for the severing of life and the savoring of agony.

The darkness that flowed from the queen was unbearably painful to all in her vicinity, like countless invisible needles piercing the flesh. Liara shrunk back and trembled. Jandala's creeping voice in Liara's head brought a sensation like the touch of a thousand spiders crawling across the back of the princess' skull and spine. I warned you once, years before, what would happen if you strayed into the path of that shameful woman... If you so choose to reunite with her in hell then it would be my pleasure to grant you that wish. Heh, heh, heh. Hah! Hah! Haah!

"Stop!" Liara screamed in panic as she held her head protectively with both arms. She doubled over as sudden vivid visions of that fateful day forced its way into her head by the Shadow Queen's power; her mother kneeling with her despondent smile on the execution platform played over, and over, as an unwelcome intrusion. Liara began hyperventilating as the unhinged laughter of the beast grew louder and louder until it became an echoing cacophony. "Stop! Stop it!"

The other women all quickly stepped back to make way for the spontaneous execution ready to take place. Liara stumbled back, squealing and crying, as the malicious fiend cackled while she made her way to the princess. Regretting your actions already, child? Do you wish to recant your words? Do you wish to apologize? I'll allow you this one chance before any final shred of mercy leaves me... The beast opened her deeply hollow black mouth, and Liara felt something from deep within her soul being pulled at as she heard Jandala's voice. Your sorrow... your pain... Hide it from yourself, from everyone all you want, but I can still feel it... I see your shameful shadow. I feel your weakness, child... Oh... Your suffering is so... delicious and intoxicating...

Liara screamed and swung wildly around her to try to swat away the ambient darkness that thickened around her. As she desperately worded out a spell of protection against the evil around her, the enchanted glyphic writing of the stone charms on her right magic bracelet glowed.

Liara marked the air with trembling fingers to carve out the arcane runic word of Ignis. The queen stopped and held her hand out as Liara used the chant of the Prayer of Fire to calm her nerves. An emotional outburst erupted from within the princess which nearly broke her meditation. From her hand a blast of Astral Fire shot out where she hastily finished, in her mind's eye, the connection of the Gate of Fire.

"You bitch!!" Liara screamed at the top of her lungs. The astral flames burned with unusual life as it consumed the monster in front of her. She felt a burn in her head and hands as she frantically connected to the Gate of Fire again. Violent, random explosions of unstable Astral Fire combusted all around the vicinity of the brightly burning spirit bonfire; some struck their target, others missed entirely. "Die! Die! Diie!!"

Liara collapsed from exhaustion as she felt the chilling effects of mana withdrawal starting to set in; her body and mind was wracked with the burning pain and disorienting side effects of overusing the Domain of Fire. It wasn't nearly her best usage of magery, especially by her normally high standards. Her uncontrolled emotions made her technique awful and her concentration poor. But it did the job.

The white-and-red bonfire in front of her burned spectacularly with the infused energies of her outburst. They danced wildly as if they were caught by powerful unpredictable winds, though the air was still. The malevolent presence was no more as the ambiance defaulted back to the almost calm, lifeless, dulling darkness around the Obsidian Keep.

"Liara... You..." Maata'ra looked on with wide eyes. "What have you done!?"

Liara grinned impishly while breathing heavily, as she pushed herself up off the ground. She stood upright with a triumphant lift of her chin. The giggling princess casually brushed back her bangs with her fingers and let out one final victorious huff.

"What?" Liara turned her shoulder to Maata'ra as she looked over in a sassy and playful manner. "Somebody had to teach that bitch a lesson eventually. And I figured I'd be perfect for the job. Next time, she'll think twice about her words. If there ever is another chance for her... "

As the other women whispered anxiously amongst themselves, Maata'ra chuckled. The assassin looked at Liara with amusement as she placed a hand on her own cheek.

Maata'ra responded, "Dear... You don't really believe that's enough to kill or truly stop Queen Mother Jandala, do you? If you did then you're even more naive than I gave you credit for. All you've done is ensure her wrath..." Her smile left her eyes as they widened with angst. "Possibly on all of us."

"Aww? I could almost swear that it sounded like the gw'eat Maata'wa is afraid and ready to cw'y," Liara girlishly wiggled her shrugged shoulders as she coyly looked up with mock sympathy. She rested a finger on her pouty lips and gave a sly lowering of her brow. "If you're afraid, then maybe--"

A loud explosion shook the air. The bright bonfire dissipated and a burst of black miasmic fumes expanded the air around them. A poisonous, and unnatural emotion of abject hatred and vicious outrage darkened the atmosphere.

Liara heard screaming all around her as her dark elf Sisters either collapsed into the ground, some into fetal positions, while others covered their faces and turned away from the darkness that formed where the queen once was. Some held onto charms, chanted prayers to patron spirits and frantically cast spells of protection. Others, like Milya the Conjuress, fell on the floor seizing and frothing at the mouth as the atmospheric darkness snaked around. Even Maata'ra was affected as she shrunk back looking frantically around like a wild animal exposed in the open fields.

Liara turned to face the darkness as its aura reached out hungrily to her. The princess let out a blood curdling cry. An intense fury with a malicious desire for tasting the sensual flavor of her suffering was directed at her. She couldn't stop the hyper-lucid visions of her slow, screaming death.

The darkness that surrounded the beast was a fluttering black shroud that deformed the air. The features of the demonic queen's face were drooping as if her flesh melted white candle wax. The black socket of her left eye had dropped down by her mouth. Her jaw dangled down impossibly low as her right eye socket lengthened downwards. The flesh on the fiendish queen's right arm as she held it in front of her face had boils. There was exposed bone and lingering embers from Liara's Astral Fire sizzling across her hand.

The shroud of darkness devoured the last bit of the embers as it reshaped the burnt flesh of the queen. Her arms and fingers lengthened outwards and wildly twisted around like violent whips each seemingly with minds of their own. The frightened princess held her arms out defensively and fell back as the demonic queen threw both her elongated limbs forward. They caught Liara and lifted her up off the ground. She squealed as they wrapped around her from her legs to her neck.

Liara struggled but failed to get at least one arm free as the hold squeezed her like an anaconda ready to feast. She clenched her hands and tried to force a breath through the tightening hold on her body. She had to call him.

The princess looked up at the sky and imagined herself as a tiny ball of light far away in the sky to mentally detach herself. She fell in a trance and chanted the Oath of Binding. Liara called out to Gou'rop whose true demonic name was carved in her left bracelet and whose essence was tied to the gemstone in it.

Two eyes with a green aura projected into her mind's eye and an image of fangs that dripped with wild malice appeared. Liara kept her calm, like she always did for the spell. Gou'rop! The Oath of Binding compels you to follow my charge! Come forth and protect your mistress!

A rushing sound of a thousand crying voices was heard from all around, as the already dark atmosphere became invaded by another black presence that projected its malicious desires against the world. The black influence of the Underworld radiating from the Obsidian Keep invigorated Gou'rop, and he fought far harder than usual against his magical bindings. He probed meticulously for any weakness in the Binding Words but Liara's authoritative will held steadfast. A mournful, unnaturally deep voice rang in Liara's head. How I desire to slaughter you... Liara Nu'rathuat'cha!