Lady and Sir White moved swiftly through the forest back to the encampment after a distressing scouting run. New to Lady were the horrific beasts which now padded the ranks of Mardok’s army, and the sight of those men betraying their kind induced rage, but there were far fewer combatants among the ranks than she expected. Under other circumstances this would be welcome news, but something gave Lady and White the feeling that there was something more going on here.
“It doesn’t make sense,” White murmured softly, despite the distance they had placed between themselves and Mardok’s forces. The forest was thick and provided ample cover, but still there was an unease.
“Hang on a moment,” Lady said as she halted at the base of a tall pine tree, glancing up. She jumped and reached for the lower branches, but the effort was in vain. “Can you reach one of those branches, Sir White?”
“My Lady is almost as tall as me,” White said with a smile. “If you cannot reach it, I will surely be just as unfortunate. Here let me lend you a hand.”
“By the Gods I hope I don’t grow anymore,” Lady commented as Sir White laced his fingers together into a stirrup, kneeling down so that Lady could climb up.
“Why not?” White chuckled as Lady carefully stepped into his hands, using his shoulder for support as he lifted her towards the branch.
“I fear I will never be able to look men in the eye at this rate.” Irritation at her so-called plight was apparent in her voice.
Lady grasped the branch and heard White chuckle underneath her. She sounded more like an awkward young woman, uncomfortable with her body, than the Duchess she was born to be and the general she had decided to become.
“Laugh all you want, but I don’t want to be a blasted tree.”
Sir White gave her an extra push, and with the added momentum, Lady managed to hoist herself up onto the branch.
“May I ask what my Lady is doing then, communing with her soon to be brethren trees?”
The death glare Sir White received from the redheaded girl only made his grin spread from ear to ear. This was the most light hearted he had seen her in ages, and despite the circumstances, he was going to see how long it would last.
“I have a feeling and wanted to get a look over the trees.”
Sir White shook his head and accepted her vague words, watching her disappear into the tree above.
The wind was blowing, making the ascent difficult, but Lady made sure of each footing before continuing with the next step. By the top her hands were covered in sap, pine needles threaded her hair, and bits of bark dusted her eyes. And yet the view from above the tree tops pushed the fears and worries of upcoming battles and the future of her nation from her mind.
The snow covered peaks loomed over the horizon, piercing the sky, drawing Lady’s eyes along their ridges until she spotted what had been missing before. A plume of dust that hugged the air in the valley and wrapped around the other side of the mountain range. A tell-tail sign of a fast marching army, headed in the direction of the Dukedom.
“There they are.” she murmured to herself, cursing Mardok’s name as she begun to climb down.
She pondered what she should do as she slowly descended the tree. The army was fresh, and bound to reach the Dukedom before them even if Lady’s forces didn’t engage the garrison here. She could split her soldiers and send the calvary back though the mountains, assuming the pass was clear this late into the year, and they might be able to intercept Mardok’s forces and inform Lucern. However, that idea was incredibly risky. Despite the reduced forces here, she was not confident that they could achieve victory as a split force, and she was left unsure what to do.
The castle was greatly defended with its self-repairing walls, but few skilled warriors filled the ranks behind those walls. There was also the question of Wolf’s safety. She wouldn’t put it past the council to use an attack on Lucern as an excuse to seize power from Wolf, claiming inability or incompetence.
A knot tightened in her stomach. Things were quickly turning bad, but her soldiers still had the advantage of surprise against the garrison here. Hopefully her kingdom could hold out against the army long enough for her return.
As she made her descent, a sharp pain exploded into her leg, and she lost her footing. She cried out in shock as she tried to regain her composure, but her leg was unresponsive and her grip was lost, leaving her to plummet through the foliage.
Lady was dimly aware as branches beat across her body and her hands blindly reached out to grab anything. But her momentum was too great, and every branch she grasped snapped and ripped the skin from her palms. She found hold on a sturdy branch, snapping her body and slowing her decent, but the force of the motion ripped her arm from its socket. She screamed in agony and fear as her hand went lame, losing its grip on the branch, and her fall continued.
The branches grew in size and began to slow her decent, her body rebounding off of them until there were simply no more. For a second she was in free fall, the tree seemingly very tall from this point of view. But that instant was abruptly ended as she collided into something not quite so hard as the ground.
Sir White had seconds to act after the arrow struck. He had remained unseen by Lady’s assailant at first, but as Lady’s limp body crashed into his arms, knocking him to the ground, an arrow struck the dirt inches from his face.
White rolled toward the tree with Lady still in his arms, not wanting to give the archer a chance for a second shot. He worried about causing more harm to Lady, but the other option was no option at all. White held Lady’s disturbingly limp body with one arm and used his other to push himself up onto his feet. He gingerly slid her out of his arm and set her against the tree, out of line of the arrows. His sword had never drew so cleanly from its sheath.
With his back pressed against the pine, White glanced around the trunk, attempting to spot the skeleton’s location. An arrow whistled past his ear, and White dashed to the next tree, his movements faster than the enemy’s ability to notch another arrow. White darted out again, weaving between the arrows and trees, closing the distance between him and his target.
Each arrow flew wide as White evaded every well aimed shot, only one arrow even managing to unaffectedly glance off of his armor. There was no contest between the two fighters, and the skeleton attempted to run from White. White’s blade slashed out, severing the spinal column, and the bones crumpled to the dirt. Whatever dark magic had animated those bones faded, the unholy miasma that created life seeping from the remains.
“You did not expect me upon you so swiftly, did you?” White said with a smirk while sheathing his sword, “Neither did I.”
He returned to Lady’s side and found her still breathing, more than he had known when she had hit the ground. He let out a breath he hadn’t known he’d been holding and inspected her body for broken bones.
Her hands were a bloody mess and her face had an awful gash across the forehead, along with countless scratches. Her body, however, seemed whole, thanks to the leather armor that now rested on her no better than the torn rags of a beggar.
The shaft of the arrow in her thigh had broken off in the fall, leaving the barb within her. White ripped off bits of his undershirt and did his best to cover up worst of the wounds, but there was not enough to work with. He was not a doctor, but he could at least slow the bleeding until he got her to one.
Lady groaned as he wrapped the bandage around her leg, her left eye fluttering as it attempted to open, the right swollen shut.
“Try not to move, my Lady, you were badly injured by the fall.”
“My chest hurts,” she said with a cringe. She turned her head to the side to cough up bloody foam, and White’s face paled at the sight.
Lady’s coughing fit resided after a moment. “Fine way to learn how to fly,” she murmured.
Sir White shook his head at her ability to make jokes in such a state, and gently pulled her up with her good arm so that she was in a sitting position. “Let’s get back to camp, you can tell me what you were doing up there later.” Turning his back towards her, White crouched down so Lady could reach him.
“Wrap your arm around my neck if you can.”
She cringed from the pain and managed to clutch onto White’s chest, but found she could do little more and cursed. White’s hands were there though, sliding under her legs and hoisting her up onto his back. Lady did her best to hold on, but found it difficult with only one arm.
White adjusted her for comfort the best he could before he broke into a jog, hoping her body could handle the motion. Whatever pain she was in, Lady made no protest, despite how the jerky movements made her body throb and her head spin.
Opting to not look at the blurring scenery, Lady closed her eyes and rested her head against his shoulder. “This is also a fine way to have my first piggyback ride.” There was a tone of humor in her words under the pain, but she was too tired to continue on and grew silent again. The pain in her arm reverberated as they moved, making her nauseous. She tried not to think as she squeezed her eyes shut, and soon wandered out of consciousness.
White allowed her to drift and moved as quickly as he could. She wasn’t immortal, despite her miraculous healing abilities, and he had no idea the extent of the damage.
He paused to adjust Lady, who had begun to slide. Lady regained enough coherency to whisper against his neck. “Thank you…for taking care of me…if I was stronger maybe I could protect you.” White smiled a bit as Lady drifted off. Visions danced in Lady’s head of her brother being chased by an unknown enemy as she lost consciousness.
Time passed and White found himself racing the sun as it began its tedious decent over the forest tops.
Lady woke, her eyes fluttering as they attempted to adjust to the darkness, and she found that she could not see. Panic surrounded her, her hands blindly stretching out to find something, anything, and noticed she could see herself…but nothing else. She could feel nothing… there was nothing there at all. She realized as her body shivered that there was no ground beneath her feet, no sky above, just the dearth of everything. This was not the darkness brought about by the absence of light, but a darkness created from the void between the stars.
Screwing her eyes shut, Lady sought comfort with the darkness under her own eyelids, rather than the eternal nothing before her that clawed at her sanity.
Use me… The familiar voice that was her own echoed around her.
She opened her eyes and was confronted with the figure of her doppelganger, standing before her. A vista of a barren plane dotted by obsidian pillars filled the figure’s backdrop, stretching into the starless sky behind it. Lady realized that she was also standing, not knowing when she had regained awareness of her body.
“Where am I?” Lady inquired as she slowly pulled away from the apparition, wishing that Malice had chosen another face.
Malice gave a wicked smile, causing Lady to wonder if she ever possessed such an expression. You are where our destinies collide. The end of the universe, the end of time, the end of all things…
Lady pulled away, holding herself tightly against a coldness she could not escape. “I don’t want this.”
Malice smiled with a patient look on its face. Its unending life left it with ample time to wait, for it would have what it wanted.
Your people thought you were pierced by an obsidian shard from the Nether portal, but they were wrong… so was Mardok.
Lady’s eyes glared as she stared into the calm, violet pools that mirrored her own.
Your fate will bring you here, where the shard was formed, in time.
Shivering, Lady held her arms, finding that a part of her just wanted all of this to stop. She wanted to go home, wanted to see her brother again, wanted things she could not have. “Why me?” She asked meekly.
Because I am in you… as I am in all men’s hearts.
“But why me!” Lady shouted, desperate for something. She didn’t want to find the portal that would lead her here, despite her mind showing her vague dreams to its location. She didn’t want to open it, in spite of her heart whispering such desires. She wanted nothing to do with Malice, even with its constant promise to give her more than she could imagine.
We are meant for one another, as a key fits into a lock. Malice’s hand outstretched towards Lady, pointing a long, bony finger, which hardly resembled her own anymore, at her chest. The shard pulsated, the vibration causing pain and Lady to wince from it. Lady grabbed her chest and glowered at Malice.
“I was not predestined for anything; I choose my own path.”
Malice smiled, but with none of the humor that was there before, just that enduring patience.
Find the end portal at the edge of the world, at the bottom of the earth, and it will guide you to where the universe meets the void, where even the brightest of stars cannot see.
“I will not open the gate.” Lady hissed as the shard persisted in vibrating, dancing in her chest.
Malice continued as if she had not spoken. I am the End of all things; no beast, no king, no mountain stands before me.
“Even if you are a god…you cannot control me…you know that I am aware of that.”
Malice’s face twisted into mirth at the defiant nature of the girl before it and murmured, Strange mortals with curious beliefs. Lady hesitated, not sure what to expect of Malice’s
reaction. Anger, impatience, something other than it mocking her will.
“If you are truly the end of all things, then what makes you think I will help you?”
Malice contorted Lady’s visage, as if there were muscles under that skin that had no right to be there. Fear leapt up into Lady’s throat as the face transformed before her to that of Mardok’s.
To prevent the suffering of those most important to you from this man.
Lady’s hands twitched at the sight of the individual who killed her parents. Even though she knew it was an aberration, the abhorrence for him welled up under her disposition. Shaking her head, trying to clear her thoughts, Lady diverted her eyes from the object of her malevolence. “I would not accept your help to destroy him in exchange of ending all things.”
Mardok’s face laughed as if what she had said were hilarious, causing Lady’s teeth to clench. All existence ends with me… in time, no matter the path it walks. Some may find themselves quicker at my embrace than others.
“You speak as though you were death incarnate.”
No, no not quite, but rather close. Mardok leered at Lady, causing her stomach to churn from the sight.
“I don’t think I understand what you are then.”
I am the end of all things, but using me will not end the universe as you believe. That would go against what I want.
“What do you want?”
To be used for what I was intended for. A simple answer that only raised more questions.
“And what is that?”
To lend my power to those who ask of it.
“You want me to use your power to slaughter people?”
I do not see the error in this; it is not wrong, for I do not know what that is. It is you who named me because I do not hold myself to such trivial moralities. Mardok’s visage tilted its head to the side in consideration. I find you humans to be quite interesting; even if you are a worthless, greedy lot.
“I do not think wanting to protect the people I care about is being greedy.”
Isn’t it though?
“I value life, Malice…”
Never mind them. People are of no value.
Malice’s words cut Lady as she realized that suffering was nothing to it, as it did not know what suffering was. It had never felt pain or sorrow, and did not know what they were, in any way. Such things were beyond it.
Life itself is only a vision… a dream… nothing exists save the void… And you… and you are but a thought…A vagrant thought…Dare to change your vision… Dream of more than what you are.
Searing pain shot down her arm, and Lady doubled over in pain, screaming. Her mind became aware of arms, arms that were holding her down and she began to fight them, trying to escape from them and the pain.
“Lady!” A voice shouted. “Please don’t struggle!”
Lady’s eyes opened, Sir White above her, his face written with worry as he and others held her down. One by one the faces came into focus, and names were placed. She wasn’t trapped in the endless void with Malice anymore… she was… awake.
Return to Table of Contents
