Part II - The Apotheosis of Miyu Nocturne (2/2)

"… Are you not all supposed to be warrior avatars? What's wrong? Not in a fighting mood?" asked the bald man on the wolf. "Come on! Raise those staffs! I know y'all got those blinker crystals installed in you. Show me what you got!"

"Anders, they got those bracelets on," said the crow lady. "Look. They're not doin' nothin' with them on."

The bald man leaned in close, and saw that she was right. He laughed. "Ah, so these little chickens are here against their will! Now what'd the Kingdom do, to get you in that wagon there? Threaten to torch your villages to the ground? To torture your loved ones in those castle dungeons of theirs? Too cruel, too cruel. And we're supposed to be the bad guys? Ha! Crystal City doesn't kidnap its own subjects, and force them to fight their war for them."

"Uh, we kinda do, Anders. It's called conscription."

"Okay, but I'm trying to make a point, here."

The crow lady make a rude gesture to the man on the wolf.

"… Charming as ever, Elmyra."

The spider-like one was circling the wagon, crawling erratically on all fours, his grotesquely long tongue dragging behind him through the dirt. "Lemme lemme lemme taste 'em, Anders. Oooh, they smell so fresh. Delicious elves, all."

The wolf man laughed. "You're one sick bastard, Arachnine."

Then, behind them all—Boom! Boom! Boom!

A series of earth-rending blows as the hulking beast slammed his hammer into the dirt, splitting the ground beneath him. The wagon shaking violently from the tremors.

Wolf man: "Oh-ho-ho, looks like Olav-boy is getting impatient! Alright, alright, let's stand them all in a line. Elmyra, go see if those guards—oh, sorry, they were circus performers, my bad—have the keys to their bracelets."

Crow lady: "You got it, 'boss'. (You say 'jump', I ask 'how high' …)"

The wolf man marched the avatars out of the wagon, and stood them all in a line.

The elves all knew there was nothing any of them could say, to convince the Four Sadists to let them go. No scenario in which they escaped with mere words.

… They were going to have to fight. Or die trying.

Luckily (???) for them, it seemed like the humans were set on evening the odds in the avatars' favor, even if only for some sense of sick amusement. … And this was assuming, of course, the crow lady could even find—

"Found 'em," sang the crow lady, swinging a ring of keys around her finger.

"Elmyra, do the honors, please?"

"Yeah, yeah …" grumbled the crow lady, as she walked back to the avatars, and began unlocking the bracelets.

Wolf man: "Now, as my associate unlocks those blink suppressors of yours, I don't want you to do anything stu—"

As soon as Farah's bracelet was unlocked, she immediately raised a hand, shooting a blast of blink energy from the crystal embedded in her palm, aimed straight for the wolf man. The metal wolf dodged with uncanny speed, and the blast sailed uselessly into the sky.

"—pid. Like that."

"Idiot," muttered the crow lady, who threw a knife straight into Farah's neck. The elf's body crumpled lifelessly to the ground.

Then the metal wolf began dancing, leaping up into the air, its bald pilot riding it as though it were some bizarre, mechanical rodeo horse. From his cockpit, the wolf man screamed into the night sky, like a madman.

"Do you see? DO YOU SEE, ELFEN ONES!? This is your race's lame attempt at crystal technology. You want the sheer power of technology but you're afraid to call it what it is! No, because elves are too afraid to desecrate the crystals by making implements of war out of them! So you've created blink weapons and you've called this MAGIC!"

He laughed maniacally.

"Magic? MAGIC!? I thought you pointy-eared lot were all about spirituality!? You have to be honest with yourself! No, no—magic, to me? Magic exists in the space between possibilities. It is art. It is grace. You and your deific connections—that's real magic. That, I respect. But you and your …"—he made a face of disgust—"blinker crystals? Don't make me laugh." He spat on the ground, near Farah's corpse, where Arachnine crawled around on his spindly limbs, sniffing at it.

A long silence.

Then: "Well? We're going to do the rest of the fight one-by-one? Or y'all wanna get in on this, all at once? Four-vee-four. … Fair fight, right? Makes no difference to us. Might as well get this over with. Pick your staffs up. No holding back, now."

The skirmish, if it could even be called that, ended fairly quickly.

The avatars—the remaining two with blink crystals, at least—attacked at the same time. Demetri launched a flurry of energy blasts from his staff, aimed at the group of human combatants. Sera launched a series of arcing blink scythes, at Olav, who charged at her with his hammer.

Miyu wrapped her arms around Alma. "Don't look," she whispered. "Don't look."

The brute with the hammer was a lot faster than he looked, even with such a massive weapon.

One moment, Sera was there. The next … she wasn't. She simply didn't exist anymore. No trace of her left.

Miyu held Alma tighter. "… Don't look."

Insect-like scuttling, drawing near. Closing in on Miyu and the child. She closed her eyes. "It'll be okay."

A thin, creepy voice: "Oooh, lemme at 'em, lemme at 'em, lemme—"

Miyu heard the sound of his tongue slithering wetly, then whipping through the air, flying right at her, and then—

Nothing.

She opened her eyes.

Demetri was standing in front of her. Shielding her and Alma from the attack. Red stain growing on his clothes.

He fell to his knees.

He was gone.

"I don't think these two are even armed, boss," said the crow lady. "See? No blinkers."

The metal wolf approached. It was moving jerkily, the side of its metallic muzzle exposed. One of Demetri's energy blasts, probably. Blue smoke leaking from its side.

The wolf man grumbled, "Ugh, elf bastard got me …" Then, looking at Miyu and Alma: "Alright, well. These two won't be any fun like this. … How 'bout we let the little one go? Run along now, little bird."

Alma looked at Miyu, unsure.

It was a trap. They both knew it was a trap.

Still … What else were they going to do? … And if she could give Alma the slightest possibility of escape … No matter how miniscule …

Miyu nodded at Alma. Go, she mouthed.

They looked at each other for a bit.

Then, Alma ran. She ran as fast as she could.

The wolf man winked at the crow. "Say, Elmyra, how far can you throw knives these days?"

The crow shrugged. "Dunno. Been a while. Kinda out of practice." She mimed a pitcher warming up.

Miyu gripped her staff. She looked at the exposed muzzle of the wolf.

She had to distract them. Let Alma get as far as possible first.

"… Lazumere," said Miyu.

The wolf man and the crow turned to face Miyu.

"What's that, little chicken?"

"I said, Lazumere. My home village. You sick … freaks razed it to the ground. With crystalfire. You murdered my parents. All the elflings in that village, who had nothing to do with any of this."

The wolf and the crow looked at each other.

"Ring a bell, Elmyra?"

The crow shook her head. "First I'm hearing of it."

The wolf laughed at Miyu. "Sorry, chickadee. You'll forgive me if I can't remember every single backwoods shithole around here. … There's been a lot of them. But I admire your moxie, kid. Ya got spunk. I'm sure, uh—your village was a very lovely place. … What was it again? I forget. Lazu … something?"

Miyu approached the wolf, head held high, her voice firm and clear. "Lazumere. A village blessed by the grace of Princess Aerya of the Lillium. I am Miyu Nocturne, and I stand before you as her chosen vessel. Her voice and will made flesh. Her vengeance incarnate. And it is through me that her punishment will be delivered upon you." She pointed her staff at the man on the wolf. "Her retribution shall be swift. Her judgment final."

The wolf man stared for a bit, bemused.

And then he laughed.

"Alright, that was pretty bad-ass, Miyu Nocturne. Show me what you got, then."

Wolf and priestess rushed at each other.

For some reason, the wolf man's earlier words echoed through Miyu's head.

The space … between possibilities …

With a single, decisive thrust, Miyu drove the end of her staff into the wolf's exposed muzzle.

She prayed that Alma was far away enough, by now.

*

The girl ran, as fast as her legs could carry her. Her lungs on fire. Heart pounding out of her chest.

And she would have kept running, were it not for the sudden, massive explosion behind her, and the resulting shockwave that knocked her off her feet. Knocking the wind out of her.

Alma turned around, and watched in horror, stunned, at the giant ball of blue flame rising up into the night sky.

*

Cameron jumped out of the carriage, and ran to the front door of the makeshift hospice.

It was in truth actually an old, abandoned school, but it was the largest building in this tiny village of Mireville.

A friend of Yuka's husband, who'd also been fighting the crystalfires, had agreed to drive Cameron there.

It had taken some convincing, from Yuka. "He's an old friend," she had said. "He's … a good human."

And then he'd been off.

And now he was here, nearly three hours later, inside the hospice.

Confused elves looked at him as he rushed past them, peeking into each room. "Miyu? MIYU!"

"What's a human doing here?" he heard them ask.

A few elves screamed. "HELP! A HUMAN!"

Cameron ignored them. He kept shouting Miyu's name.

Then, in the hallway, a face he recognized. Cameron ran toward the elf, grabbing him by the shoulders.

"ELEGIA! WHERE'S MIYU!"

Miyu's brother simply stared back, blankly. No surprise, no anger. No life in his eyes.

Cameron turned his head to the door of the room Elegia had been in.

"Miyu …"

He let go of Elegia.

He rushed to the door.

He slid open the door.

He entered the room.

Smell of burnt flesh. Sour smell of medicine.

It took a long time for Cameron to realize what he was looking at.

A tangled mess of bloody bandages. An unrecognizable mass of flesh on the bed, barely even elf-shaped anymore.

"Miyu …"

Cameron dropped to his knees.

"Miyu … I'm here … I-I'm sorry, Miyu …"

Arms grabbing him from behind. The elfen guards, here to remove him from the building.

"MIYU!" he screamed, as they dragged him away.

"MIYU, I'M SORRY!

"I'M … I'M HERE! I CAME! I'M HERE NOW! PLEASE …

"… I'm here! … Please, I'm sorry … I-I'm sorry, Miyu …

"… I'm sorry."