Chapter 200 – Rise of the Witch Queens

Lilyth

‘Malika Adzhenair,’ I said. ‘I hereby appoint you my Chancellor. You put me in power, now help me run this place.’

‘This is preposterous,’ Wilhum shouted like a petulant child who was just denied candy.

This was a last-minute change of decision for me. Wilhum's betrayal still stung, and seeing his smug grin upon entering the throne room… It was too much.

‘I must agree with my husband’s point if not his wording, my Lady,’ Malika said. ‘Wouldn’t he be a better choice?’

‘You are free to seek his advice. I will not. And hey, Baerniel is already the Captain of the Guard, I made Yachiro the Spymaster, so you are the only “architect” of my rise I wouldn't be putting to work.’

Malika nodded.

‘I accept, then.’

‘Splendid!’

‘That was not the plan, Mal!’ Wilhum protested.

‘No plan survives contact with the enemy, Wilhum,’ I said.

He continued to protest, so I asked the two guards remaining in the room to escort him back to his quarters and keep him company until Lady Malika returned.

‘Yee, your Highness,’ they replied and dragged Wilhum kicking and screaming out of the room.

‘I apologise for this embarrassing display,’ Malika said.

‘He lost everything today, ‘I waved her apology away. ‘He is taking it shockingly well, considering.’

‘You didn't need to humiliate him like this, though.’

‘I wasn't planning on it, Mal,’ I said. ‘But then I saw him enter with that triumphant grin…’

Malika facepalmed.

‘Way to go, Willie,’ she muttered.

‘Based on Yachiro’s reaction, I assumed that the plan was to keep him in power to some extent, yes?’

‘Yes,’ my Spymaster confirmed. ‘We realised you were likely to be in over your head, so the hope was you would keep someone experienced with the matters of the realm on hand. Of course, he had to blow it. Then again, the plan went tits-up the moment you summoned the Bishop, your Highness.’

‘SHE DID WHAT?’ Malika exclaimed.

‘What made you consider such a risky idea to begin with?’ my new Chancellor asked after we gave her the minutes of the meeting.

‘Oh, that was the less risky one,’ I shrugged. ‘When you intercepted us, we planned to leave our things at Yachiro's and just storm the Cathedral. Thanks to you, we could try something else first.’

Judging by her expression, she had never expected us to do something so monumentally stupid.

‘You were the one to put her in charge, Malika,’ Aki said. ‘We all knew it was a bad idea. Lilyth tried to tell you.’

‘I should have listened,’ she hissed.

‘I’ll do you a solid, Mal,’ I said. ‘I quit. Figure out this shit on your own. The more I hear from you, the more I realise you three wanted me to just be a puppet. Why? To protect Wilhum from the results of his idiocy? To prevent us from doing more damage?’

‘Both,’ Yachiro admitted. ‘I must implore you, however, please don’t abdicate. It would send the realm into turmoil.’

‘I fail to see how that is my problem.’

The comment seemed to horrify him.

‘Are you really so callous?’

‘No. Just tired of people thrusting more and more responsibility upon me. The gods. Wilhum. You three fuckos. I never asked for it, and I now understand why Ereshkigal wants us to be neutral. So… I am done. Let’s get out of here, guys.’

I was pleasantly surprised that everyone chose to follow me. Even Dainyir. However, just as our group was about to leave, Yachiro suddenly appeared in front of us.

Interesting, I dimly remembered something like this happening when Kaede tried to kill us back home.

‘I am sorry, my friends, but if you are unwilling to cooperate, then I must ensure you won’t be a thorn in our side.’

Ere, will using your powers kill me?

‘No. Your new body should be able to take them to some extent.’

Thank you, I replied and turned into [Angel of Death], as I began to call that form.

Yachiro clearly wasn’t expecting to see that.

I smiled and pointed the sword at him.

‘You were given a chance, Yachiro Yamaoka,’ I snarled at him, imbuing every word with pure Death. ‘My lady awaits.’

Yachiro chose to go down fighting. I admired his bravery, so I gave him an honourable death. He appeared next to me and swung his hand at me. Some instinct in me activated, and I flew back and swung my sword.

Yachiro’s body fell in two pieces onto the floor.

I turned towards Malika and what I saw… I had to consciously turn off my sin-o-meter.

‘And you… Malika the Betrayer, do you want Zaiven to grow up without his mother?’

She fell to her knees, and tears streaming down her face, just shook her head and cried:

‘N-no.’

‘Then take your family and leave my keep. Never come back.’

She ran away as if on fire.

I turned back to normal and immediately started to feel my heart pounding.

FUCK. I can’t overuse that.

I did my best not to show my distress, but non-insiders were too horrified to pay attention. Too horrified perhaps, as Baerniel yelped in pain and began clutching his chest. Realising I likely caused the man a heart attack, I quickly shouted:

‘Persephone! Clinic! Now!’

She listened without a peep of complaint.

I looked around the Throne Room. Rennie was kneeling by her grandfather’s corpse, crying her eyes out. Harkan was by her side, comforting her.

I have an awful tendency to kill her family members.

Kartyen and my friends were just staring at me, waiting for my next move.

I looked at the throne. I could claim it if I wanted. REALLY claim it. No one would oppose me. Should I, though?

Ere?

No answer.

My choice then.

I looked at Aki. It was her birthright. I would not rob her of it.

I started to kneel before her, but she stopped me with a touch on my shoulder.

‘No,’ she said. ‘You were the one who started this. None of us would be here without you.’

‘Together then?’ I whispered and took her hand into mine and offered the other to Caei, but she shook her head.

‘’There are only two thrones.’

I switched into the [Cloud Form] and, with a snap of my fingers, I summoned a cloud. I still had no idea how to sit on those, but live and learn.

‘Three now,’ I smiled.

‘Ren?’

The girl just looked at us and just shook her head.

‘I have a different destiny,’ she said, likely referring to her divinity.

‘Three Witch Queens of Ror-Bhyk then,’ I said and holding hands, we ascended to our thrones.

‘Three Witch Queens of Ror-Bhyk,’ Aki and Caei agreed, and we ascended to our thrones.

Caei made me a solid and cast a [Floating Disk] inside of my cloud so I wouldn’t have to worry about crashing to the ground. I sat on it cross-legged as Nyx would.

Hopefully, I won’t get struck by lightning for blasphemy.

‘Bzzzzzt! Zzzaaap!’ Nyx made electricity noises and giggled.

Persephone returned just after all the “official” stuff ended. The timing was suspicious.

‘Jillyead is taking care of Baerniel,’ she simply said. ‘Heart attack. He’ll live.’

Note to self: Do not use Death powers around people with heart conditions.

Savri and Deirdee returned two hours later. The search of the Cathedral and other Church properties was a mixed bag. On one hand, neither of the missing Dragoons was there. On the other hand, we found another treasure trove of items. Two Magic Mirrors, another Portal Prisms and three more of those weird knives. Two of them looked used. There were no zombies anywhere, though.

‘Where the fuck could they be then?’ I asked no one in particular.

‘The underground necropolis, your Highnesses?’ Sergeant Milten suggested. ‘I know it is a bit… on the nose, but we never searched it. There was no time.’

By the gods… had it only been two days? Fuuuuck.

‘Thank you, Sergeant. By the way, until Captain Baerniel recovers and we figure out what to do about him, you are in charge of the City Guard.’

‘Yes, your Highness,’ he replied, clearly unhappy.

‘Don’t worry, we will try to free you of that position as soon as possible, Sergeant,’ Aki said.

The man took the second change in management in stride. Savri was disappointed about her mother getting exiled, but it was mostly directed at Malika.

‘I guess I’ll miss Zaiven the most,’ she summed it up.

‘Maybe we can figure out a way for you to see him,’ Aki tried to cheer her up.

‘Maybe,’ she agreed. ‘Now let’s go hunt some undead.’

The catacombs, if you can believe it, were dark and spooky. And cold. So cold.

They were also insanely cramped, meaning we had to limit our numbers to “can see in the dark” crowd, meaning only Caei, Deirdee and I went in. We decided to let Ren sit the whole trip out as she was not in the best mental state right now. Persephone, after taking Phosi back home, agreed to stay with her. Savri and Aki initially came with us, but realised they would be basically useless inside.

‘Go back to Rennie,’ I told them as our trio descended into the tunnels. ‘She needs you.’

‘I’ll wait here,’ Sav said. ‘Cover your rear. But yeah, go to Rennie, Akster.’

‘I’ll kill you if you get yourself killed,’ Aki muttered.

The worst part was… I was fairly certain she could actually do that, even if she wouldn't be able to kill us again, beating us up was certainly on the table.

‘We’ll be careful,’ I promised, and we began making our way down.

Milten’s idea paid off, and we found the Sanguine Thralls there. There were ten of them, and we barely noticed their presence. Don’t get me wrong, even basic undead can be a threat, but… well… not if you expect them to be there and can see them from a distance. We let Deirdee kill them with the Storm so that she could catch up on experience a bit. I didn't want to brag to people, but between the Red Masks I killed and Yachiro, I was more than halfway to level twenty- three, as the old fucker was level seventy-two. It was no surprise, as thanks to my sin-o-meter, I discovered he was over six hundred years old.

I need to stop using that.

Anyway, the big find of our catacomb trip was the laboratory. It was basically an embalming room converted into a serial killer’s secret BDSM sex dungeon - human skins spread on racks, jars filled with organs on shelves, various alchemical equipment and potions. The centrepoint of the room was a table with a half-cut-open corpse lying on it. Judging by the pile of clothes next to it, the deader was the missing Dragoon.

‘Umm…’ I said.

‘Yeah…’ Caei agreed. ‘Burn it all?’

‘Yep,’ we confirmed with Deirdee.

‘I think [Flame Tongue] might not be enough.’

‘I guess we can get some Fire Fae here.’ I suggested, but by the time we returned with them an hour later, the room was empty, the only sign of its previous contents being a lot of blood everywhere.

‘I can get some guards stationed here,’ Asha said. ‘We can also coordinate with the City Guard to search this place more thoroughly.

‘Granted,’ I nodded. ‘I’ll let Sergeant Milten know you’ll be coming.’

‘It would appear a member of the Cabal was here afterall,’ Caei mused.

‘It looked like their handiwork, all right,’ Deirdee agreed.

‘Asha, once you have a moment, come by for a longer chat,’ I said. ‘I think we’ll need to discuss a proper alliance.’

She nodded, a worried expression on her face.

Perhaps I found us a new Captain of the Guard.

Caeileera

‘Did you know Malika didn't always have pink hair?’ Lilyth asked, as the three of us Witch Queens sat alone in our council room later that evening, drinking wine and trying to process the events of that long day. ‘It used to be dirty blonde when she was young. Her eyes also weren't orange, but grey.’

‘How do you know?’ dumbfounded Aki asked.

‘Back in the throne room when we were forced to fight her and Yachiro… Before I suppressed the ability, I briefly saw into her soul. I can't make sense of most of it, but her once looking “normal” is one thing I am sure of.’

‘Thanks, jackass,’ Aki grumbled, likely taking offence at Lilyth’s phrasing.

I imagine she was bullied quite a lot due to her hair colour.

‘Sorry, hon. I can’t find a better word for it. For all its worth, best I can tell, Zekuthran’s hair wasn’t blue back then either. It was black.’

‘Oh… I see what you mean now. You are still sleeping on the couch tonight.’

‘I don’t think the three of us will fit there.’

‘I meant alone!’

Realising I would likely be joining Lilyth on that couch due to what I was about to say, I asked:

‘So you mean to tell us that something happened that caused demons to look like Aki or Sav look?’

‘Yes,’ Lilyth nodded.

‘Is it tied to what you called Malika… “The Betrayer”?’

‘I don’t know,’ Lilyth shook her head and took a sip of wine. ‘But riddle me this… how do Titles work?’

‘You mean how Sav is called “Riftseeker”?’

‘Yes. Or Kaede being “The False Saint”.’

‘It is what someone is popularly known as, isn't it?’ Aki asked.

‘There is more to it,’ Lilyth shook her head. ‘People call me “the Chainbreaker”, but it never appeared on my character sheet. Is it because I am not well-known enough as one? It can’t. The appellation of “the False Saint” appeared in my mind the moment Kaede revealed herself as one. Is it because I called her that, or is it because… some core part of her being crystallised at that moment?’

That was a very good question, but I didn't see how it answered mine.

‘I’m getting to it, Caei. There were two more people whose souls I could see into recently - Yachiro and Persephone. Neither of them has Titles. Why? Yachiro was six hundred years old…’

Wait… what?

‘... Persephone predates the Vandarian Empire. They were fairly notorious at some point or another, and yet… nothing. There were vestiges… remnants of those there, sure, but nothing concrete. So, coming back to people calling me “the Chainbreaker”. That nickname is a joke. Sure, I did free the slaves on Varlia, but that was an accident and never my intention. Not something that defines me as a person.’

‘So if Malika is “The Betrayer”, why didn't we call her that way?’

‘Who says we didn't?’ Lilyth smiled mysteriously. ‘We called Sav the same way, but we didn't know it at times. Last question: how do last names work?’

I had no idea. We didn't use them back home. Aki was equally puzzled.

‘It varies from place to place, of course, but they can be references to where someone is from…’

Aki of Dan-Hem

‘...who was their parent…’

Daughter of Malika

‘...their profession or some trait of character they are known for.’

‘Or their Title,’ I whispered, realising what Lilyth was getting at.

‘Or their Title,’ she agreed. ‘You see… I never wondered about it, because back home, last names were just a thing you had, and most people didn't care all that much about their meaning, so I never stopped to think what Adzhenair meant. You see, when I looked into Malika’s soul, the magnitude of what she did over her long life was so overwhelming, I had to disable that ability before it short-circuited my brain. But there was this massive thing there, a choir of a million dead souls screaming in torment. And they all said one phrase over and over again. “Adzhenair! Adzhenair!”’

‘The Betrayer,’ Aki hissed.