The Second Carpenter

XXXVII

XXXVII_I_Freedom_Units

There was nothing much interesting about what Veron and Ekuis witnessed from the above. A battle with an obviously prevailing side can barely be called a battle. As the Tiyzn fleet approached the vessel of Arenlin Sigareks, Admiral of the Treasure Seekers, the imperial fleet was almost immediately crushed.

"I told you, Ekuis," said Veron, "I told you there will be a more appropriate time."

"I would have preferred it kill him myself. They stole my vengeance."

"Say, Ekuis, you don't, by any chance, have trouble breathing, do you?"

"A bit. But I'll handle it."

"Maybe I should just throw you down."

XXXVII_II_Undead_Unlocked

"Heat . . ." said Asuang, inhaling deeply as he stepped onto the mouth of Aulcano leading to their abyss, "I've missed this . . ."

"Head weakens us, Commander."

"A fraction detatched from infinity . . . the whole is untouched . . ."

"Rasa'el was telling the truth, it seems," said Queen Maytha, Goddess of the Underground, caressing her blond lover lying on her lap with the right hand, and holding a menacing tome with the other, sitting on a floating throne of bones, "I don't sense many spirits capable of battle. We'll take over the castle easily. Isn't that right, my boy?" she pouted her black lips at the blond man lying on her lap.

"Of course, My Goddess."

"Open your mouth, bitch." He did, and she spat into his mouth. "Swallow. Good." She slapped him. "Oh, aren't you the most adorable thing . . ."

The Goddess of the Underground had snow-white hair that would reach her calves in straight locks if it did not magically float as though she were in water. Her eyes had light blue sclera and pitch-black irises, but her hair always cascaded on the left side of her face, as if to cover a scar. She had thin and long eyebrows and luxuriant eyelashes, and a pale skin approaching the color of her sclera. Her chainmail dress of obsidian was ostentatiously adorned with human bones in a grotesquely aesthetic manner, in unison of color with her jet-black lips and eyelids, which were naturally colored without any make-up. As she marched toward the capital of Tiyz along with her army of snow, her collective and individual presence indeed lowered the temperature of the vicinity, but the air in that desert did not have enough humidity to be turned to snow, and all her cold did was freeze the river that sourced from the aulcano whence she had emerged from the abyss and led into the city.

"Mother," panted Kayla, struggling to keep up with her floating pace, "Must you do this? Why do we need more land? What good would it bring? Can't we be happy with what we have?"

"What do we have, you idiot girl?" the Snowqueen glared at her daughter menacingly, "You dare speak to me of happiness after taking my daughter away from me? Be quiet before I regret not exiling you!"

"But Mother, that is so cruel! I might have been stupid, but I'm just as sad as you are about Bluemoon! She's my family too! She's my baby sister . . . Don't speak as though I wanted her to disappear!"

"I SAID," the queen screamed without looking at her, "BE QUIET!"

Kayla lowered her head and sobbed silently.

"I . . ." the queen sighed, "I need to concentrate." She opened the book. Each side of the cover of the book was decorated by a rectangle of bones, the cover itself being made of skin. It was alive. It was breathing. Pulsing. On the front cover, the words LIBER DEPOSUM were written. "Liber, liber, who's the deadest?" the book turned a few pages on its own. "Ah, I see, there is a necropolis nearby. I've only practiced my powers in confined spaces. Hmm . . . let's see how far I can reach . . ." she put the index and middle fingers of her left hand on an open page of Liber Deposum, rose the other one, and began to chant in a tongue unbeknown possibly even to herself. An abundance of flying bones rushed toward them, condensed into giant skeletons and giant blades to be held by the skeletons. Some other bones joined with the throne of thet Frozen Queen and extended below it at four side, turning it into a gigantic quadruped, while some others extended across the backrest, turning into enormous wigns.