Chapter 27

27

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A small blue-green peahen rubbed against Caste's hand, urging her to pet the majestic fowl while she told her tale. "Two thousand years ago, I was the Royal pet, a golden peahen. The Jewel of Mahali, they called me. I died roosting on my hatchlings. My death was so full of regret that I refused to go willingly, and the Gods of Mahali saw it fit to add me to their ranks. And here I am, a Phoenix reborn." "Our story is much the same, but Fiaerna will tell you we are the most recent addition to the Gods of Mahali. Her Darkness made it so, robbing us of our chance to live as we were meant, razing our vast and prosperous Kingdom to the ground so that nothing but sand remains as far as the eye can see." Their stories were simple enough to understand, sad enough to empathize with. And so Caste made up her mind to end their suffering and continue on her path towards the truth. Towards home.

When she'd resurfaced from her trance state, all the Chakra Scimitars had grown back from their hilts. This was a frustrating development. But nothing the Champion of Odinsai couldn't handle. At first she'd conjured three elemental bows and given two to Fi and Chise in hopes that an elemental firing squad would do the trick. The bows and arrows morphed from solid stone to molten lava to bitter cold ice to deep sea water and finally into swirling gusts of wind. Shing. Shing. Shing. Each arrow hit it's mark on the Chakra Blades and all at once the vibrant colors dissipated leaving rusted old scimitars in their place. But within seconds, the blades would grow back and glow anew. Giving up on this strategy, Casterline decided to think bigger.

She rose in stature until she could reach out her hand and pluck a beautiful rainbow from the sky. She'd made herself into a Giantess tall enough and strong enough to bend Light itself. As she fashioned the rainbow into a bow and arrow, the Tridevi stared up in disbelief. She and Phon were massive creatures in their own right and had never been diminutive in stature to anything or anyone. Fi and Chise took Thrice's momentary shock and used it to blast Phon, though she'd just broken free of her freezing prison seconds earlier, with as much Ice as they could possibly throw at her, making each layer of Ice so thick, she would never be able to escape from within. None of the ladies had any idea if Gods and Goddesses had any weak spots at all, but fighting blindly was better than standing still and awaiting a painful end at the sharp edge of a holy scimitar. Caste smiled down at her prey as they looked on in fear and nocked four elemental arrows. She pulled back and let them fly gloriously into their targets. They exploded into a dazzling array of vivid colors. It was a breathtakingly beautiful scene. When the rainbow prisms dissipated and the sand cloud finally cleared, nothing remained but scorched earth where the Goddesses had stood. Casterline reached down from the heavens, still as tall as a skyscraper, and grabbed a bloodied phoenix plume and a half-melted locket. The necklace was heavy and made of real gold from chain to charm. Casterline began to lose form and shrank down to her normal human size. She clicked the locket open and there on the right side was a picture of Sultan Ranveer and Sultana Rani, the mother and father of the triplet Princesses Delia and Redrik had tried and failed to save. Bhavya, the beauty. Kavya, the poem never written. Navya, the youthful.

Kavya, the unborn child stricken by Fiaerna's Dark power was in the center of the Tridevi, her face had had an eerie transparency to it. And now Casterline understood why. The three sisters were together at last, souls set free from pain and lingering regrets. There had to be some solace in that. "These lost children of Mahali, may they rest in peace." Caste made a left-handed fist and held it over her heart in silent prayer. She hadn't even noticed her action being a custom of Krowne. Fiaerna saw it though, it was a stance Delia took every night in front of that wretched Mirror Door.

"The dead can rest, Casterline. We need to get going." Fiaerna said stoically. Militant and cold. The girl lacked empathy and Caste wanted so very much to change that. But, in spite of all her efforts to show love and compassion to the Princess, Casterline's thoughts were always firmly set on her real daughter Harumi. No matter where Fiaerna took them next, it was only one step closer to the ultimate goal of getting back home. Unfortunately, the flying Tarot card had been singed at the edges and Phon's eternal blaze was creeping slowly through all four corners. Fiaerna bade them all to jump on and take this mode of transportation as far as it could go. The second Caste jumped on, she fainted. The ability to enlarge herself was going to have to be a one-time party trick as it drained her Mana so powerfully, she went into an almost coma like state. "Hold her still. Don't let her fall off." Fiaerna ordered Chise. The Summon held Caste's sleeping body against her own and gently stroked her hair, careful to retract her claws so as not to harm the precious cargo. "My protector. My friend." Human words shot through her psyche for the briefest moment and then the thought was gone and forgotten, overridden by the savage, instinctual thoughts of a beast. As the hours passed, Caste and Chise's stomachs began to growl loudly. Fiaerna, who'd been seated at the front of the card to steer it in the right direction, turned to look at her bedraggled comrades. "Have these." She tossed some phoenix eggs their way. Chise caught them as though her hand were a catcher's mitt. She held them out for Casterline, who'd she'd nudged awake only moments earlier, but Caste turned away. She'd rested...and remembered. The betrayal these eggs symbolized. The hurt merely looking at them caused. She traced the scar she'd forever have to live with due to Fiaerna's never ending cruelty. "You eat them. You need your strength as much as I do." She curled Chise's talons around the eggs and pushed them back toward her Summon. Chise looked so concerned. "Eat. This is an order from your Master." Caste said in a kind and gentle tone. She didn't want to feel her hunger nor her heartache and she especially didn't want to look at Fiaerna. So she closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep yet again. Due to her heavy exhaustion, nothing could wake her this time. While in her deep comatose state she dreamt many dreams and suffered many nightmares. The most agonizing dream was of a woman Caste had never seen before. The woman wasn't speaking, but Caste could feel a great, heavy sorrow emanating from her. She was so sick and so sad. Her face was flushed and full of a bitterness Casterline could not quite understand. This was surely someone's beloved daughter, right? And so Casterline said to her, not knowing whether she could hear the words nor grasp their meaning, "Someone sees you. Someone loves you. Don't give up." Though obscured by a shroud of black, it seemed as though the woman had stirred, turning her face downward to look for the source of those kind words before closing her eyes and drifting off into another sweet slumber. Had her affirmations of encouragement reached her? The blackness overwhelmed the scene and then the dream slowly began to fade. Many days and countless hours had passed when Casterline finally opened her eyes. She came to at the sputtering jolt of Fiaerna's teleportation Magic. "What's going on, Princess?" "The card is disintegrating. We're close enough to warp to our final destination. Chise, hold on to her." Chise nodded, growled, and hefted Casterline onto her feathery shoulder. The warping ability shot off dark blue flames at the back of the tarot card like a turbo engine. She warped three times but faltered on the fourth as the card burned to ash around them. Fiaerna warped herself into a sitting position on the ground, legs folded beneath her seiza style. Chise never landed. She merely floated in place, snake's tail flicking back and forth in a happy wagging motion. "You did well." Caste patted her cheek as she praised her. Chise let her down onto the ground feeling content. She'd properly protected her Master and was ready to take on anything. "Hmph. Simple creature." Fiaerna said, cheeks flushed with jealousy at all the attention she wasn't getting. Casterline walked over to the little Majesty and helped her up. "You did well, too, Princess." Caste gingerly kissed Fiaerna's forehead. She was angry at her still, for giving her that scar. For forcing her here. But she knew that appeasing the little devil would be the key to her survival and eventual release from this hell. "Where are we, My Lady?" "You are in my mother's childhood home. The Grand Gardens of the Rosequartz Dynasty. This is the hunting ground in which you will face your final trial."