Blood And Stone

Chapter 56: All Hail Animus

All she could see was that sickening blue flash. The moment her beloved sister sacrificed herself for the mortals and when her sisters stopped her from helping. The betrayal cut deep, the pain tore across her chest like lightning. She could almost swear that her chest was lying open beneath her armor. The warm, wet feeling against her skin was likely just sweat but everything in her mind was telling her that she was dying. The severity of her heartbreak consumed her as she flew through the trees surrounding what was the city of Sitharu only hours before.

War's eyes filled with tears again but she blinked them away. She would not allow another tear to fall for the mortals or her sisters. Fate and Spirit had conspired against her and Peace. They knew all along that Peace was going to die and they refused to stop it. They just let it happen. They betrayed their youngest and most important member of the Winged Council. The selfishness of it all brought bile rising in the back of her throat. She spat, a long string of green saliva falling from her lips to land somewhere on the earth below.

Every breath she took shuddered in her chest. Her pain soon gave way to rage as her crimson eyes searched the ground below. The trail of blood was easy enough to follow but her need for revenge was making her impatient. She spotted the couple staggering around ahead of her. The male was leaning heavily on the Cannibal Queen, the gash in his back making it difficult for him to stand steadily on his own. He let out a soft groan as the woman dropped him on the ground. She kicked him swiftly in his ribs, words of irritation falling from her lips.

War felt herself transform, her anger and sadness boosting her power as such emotions tend to do. A red wisp in the wind, she swiped at the man on the ground, pinning him hard in the snow. With a ruthless kick to the jaw, she sent the woman sprawling into surprise. She sat up and turned her head in every direction, sniffing the air. She tried unsuccessfully to pinpoint where the attacker was. War wrapped her fingers around the woman's neck, lifting her high into the air. Torvir let out a terrified yell.

All he could see was the crimson shape of a woman, a spirit grasping his companion and slamming her hard against a tree. The smell of sulfur filled Kol's nose, so strong that it pulled a gag from deep within her throat. Her hands flew out in an attempt to scratch at whoever was attacking. The swipes went right through War and fueled her anger. She pulled the woman to her feet again, allowing her voice to slip along her pale skin like a menacing caress. "Try as you might, you will never escape my judgment, little devil."

War released the woman before sending another kick at her jaw. The woman flipped backward, landing on her hands and feet. She inhaled deeply once more before she moved to her knees. "My Goddess, I kneel before thee, humble and contrite for the death of your dearest sister. Please, I ask for mercy as I too have lost one dear to me. My daughter perished at the hands of your sister, two deaths that your sisters could have prevented." Kol's snake-like voice had War raising her chin. Watching this so-called Queen grovel and beg for mercy brought new ideas to War's angry mind.

"And you deserve my mercy why?" War asked her.

"My Goddess, my people, and I simply live the lives we were born into. We thirst for human flesh. It was promised to us by Torvir and we cannot go against our instinct." Kol somehow managed to make her eyeless face look afraid and perhaps even sorry for what she was saying. "It is not our fault that we must consume human flesh. We were created by you and your sisters were we not?"

"No. Your existence came from the Brother War." War cast disgust-filled eyes on the sad little creature before her.

"As did you. And your sisters. Are we then not kin?" War narrowed her eyes at the Queen. She found herself wondering why she was working under the command of a little pipsqueak like Torvir. "My Goddess..."

Torvir tried to attack, his hands coming up to aim at War. Her crimson eyes met his tiny pupils. She simply flicked a finger in his direction, the movement forcing him down onto his back. She pressed him against the dirt, letting it fill the wound on his back as he yelled in pain. "Pathetic. Both of you."

She paused for a few moments. Torvir writhed against the ground, his pained movements pressing the dirt even deeper into his wound. "Quit your whining. I have a proposition for you both. You want power, Torvir, and you, Kol, want revenge for your cursed existence."

"And for my daughter."

"I can hand you all you wish for but, you will help do something for me," War said, a wicked grin forming on her lips.

"What good will it do me? I will die from this wound." The sorcerer groaned from his place on the ground. War flipped the man over without so much as touching him. The blood that poured from the wound ran down his back in a solid blanket of red. She did not doubt that the pathetic worm would die from this. Even the Sithaurian healers and those from Haswounder would struggle to save him from this one. They could save him, there was a chance but it would be a fight.

"I can heal you." She said, her words falling from her lips as a promise from the divine.

"And what is it, my Goddess, that you would ask of us?" Kol asked. She stayed on her knees, her body language deceptively meek and subdued. War knew the woman wasn't as afraid of her as she attempted to look. She was no fool, not as ignorant as the sorcerer but she was nowhere near as afraid of her as he was. War found herself smiling.

"I want my sisters' heads to rest on pikes." She stated. There was no hint of regret. There was no sympathy for her two older sisters. They had allowed a child to give her eternal life for a realm of mortals that would never progress beyond their petty squabbles over gold and land. Her death had been for nothing and her kin had allowed it to happen. "You help me avenge my sister Peace and I will hand you all the power you could ever want."

"H-how do we know you can b-be trusted?" Torvir's voice was strained, his every breath a labored gasp. The sad sack was going to die right here in front of her. War stepped forward and pushed the old man face-down. Her fingers ran lightly over the edge of the wound. His flesh reached out across the void of blood and bone, wrapping its fingers gently around the fibers of the split muscle. The dirt fled as though it were afraid to be there. The sound pulled each side together in a warm embrace and the long, thin pink line arose. The skin would remain tight until he got used to it but he wouldn't die.

"Your life, you great lump." War spat her sickening green on the ground beside his feet. "Do we have a deal?"

The two sat quietly for several moments. Torvir slowly nodded his head, his dirty fingernails running over the part of the scar that he could reach. He felt the skin, trying to asses its level of healing. He seemed satisfied enough as he nodded his agreement. Kol bowed her head once again, acknowledging her agreement to the terms as well.

War felt a mixture of excitement well within her chest. She smiled and let out a cackle of a laugh. The sound seemed to split her face into an even wider smile, too wide for her skull. Her wings extended as flames ran over the leathery surface, and her eyes narrowed into small crimson slits. Her nails grew of their own accord. The flesh of her fingertips withered and turned black as did the skin of her lips and around her eyes. The smell of sulfur that rose around soon gave way to a heated wall of black and red flames. She felt the power in her chest grow, radiating down to her fingers and toes.

"All hail the Demon Of Hyboné." Kol said. Torvir and Kol both bowed before War.

"Let it be known that you bore witness to the birth of the Demon of Hyboné. The future Goddess of all the mortal realm. Kneel before me as your one true deity. Kneel before Animus." War growled.

The two went from their knees, leaning forward to place their palms flat against the cold earth below. "In the name of Animus, we serve faithfully and without question." The two said. War drew in a fresh breath of air. Her work had only just begun.