Chronicles- A Devil's Daughters Crossover- Book Two(Published Feb 2017)

Rocky Trails

    Well, wasn't this quaint. The portal was really only half a portal at the moment,  and since no one could see or feel the shield, she wasn't about to get her butt toasted while trying to disappear. Shield up, meant no funky travels in, or out, of Moranis; for anyone.
   Making her way down the dirt road, Malice looked for anything that hadn't been burnt or ransacked. Dammit! Where the hell was Kember? She would have taken for cover at the first sign of an attack, but where?
     Everywhere she turned, Malice found more crumbling walls and smouldering rooftops. The Insid had done a hell of a job on this little town, and she got to wondering if anyone, was still alive. Broken windows and doors, the contents of various shops spilled out into the streets, and a barrel of ale, half corked and leaking all over the village square.
   Not a soul to be found inside the small bake shop, nor in the boutique; not that they had walls to shelter anyone; but she couldn't see, or sense for that matter, anything. No Humans, no Mangese, no Insid, no nothing! So where the hell had everyone gone with the portal looking as it did? Was the shield down?
    One quick blink, and a few singed feathers, and Malice learned that sure enough, the shield was still up. Awesome, now she felt the burning at the tips of her wings. She'd just add that to the rest of the shit storm of a night! It was night still, right?
    Trekking along past the scattered stones and charred remains of whatever piece of furniture it had been at one time, Malice made her way towards the southern end of the village, towards the tavern in which she had encountered that delightful little pipsqueak, Alaine! What awaited her though? A bottle or two of Scotch to ease the pain, or an army of Insid, in between her and those bottles?
   Bottles it was! Hidden beneath the counter of course; and the good stuff, too!
    Five bottles of Scotch, mixed in with what looked like a whole hell of a lot of Rum. "Ugh!" She let out with a shudder, remembering a not so casual encounter with a group of Pirates. Not, someone you wanted on the other side; or your side, for that matter. Low life, cheap skates, trying to get in on her gold digging action. Bastards, all of them!
    An hour or two later, the little tavern wasn't looking so dull, and she had fixed the issue with the 'non-broken' chairs; by breaking them herself. She also took a swing at the washroom doors and then round housed the bar itself. Not bad for missing a week on the mats with Nyx! Not bad, at all. The stairs were all but torched, the stools and chairs now matched, the bar looked pleasantly, something, that she couldn't think of at that very moment, and... She couldn't remember the and, either! Success! She was drunk! Alone, and very drunk!

                                                                               ***
    "Can't you make this thing go any faster?"
    "This thing, is traveling as fast as it can go, unless you think you should get out and push up through space?" Mia groaned, having been sitting next to the Witch for eight whole hours now, and listening to the female blurt out random, everythings.
    "I'm sorry!" Kember sighed, feeling the small cabin closing in on them. "I just..."
    "Fucked up?" Mia cut in.
    "Fuck off, Mia!"
    "What? Now you want to play the silent game?" Mia growled back at her. "Admit it, you both fucked up!"
     "I had no idea, the Valkyrie had been grounded!"
     "Nor, did you check with any of us, to ensure the mission was a go!"
     "I didn't think I needed permission!"
     "Everyone, in the Null, reports to me!" Mia glared at her. "If I don't know where you are, when something goes down, like it has on Moranis..."
      "Funny, how you weren't following the rules when you took off on Nyx!" Kember shot back. "Madrina told me that you were gone for days."
     "Oh, did she now?" Mia laughed, "Did she also tell you, that she took off, for three months? Not even Nissa knew where she was!"
     "You knew where she was!" Kember cocked a brow at her. "You've had tabs on both your sisters since you could all walk! You can't tell me that you, of all people, didn't know where she was?"
    "That's besides the point!"
    "Is it?" Kember inquired, lounging back in her seat before the monitors. "Cause the way I see it even though Madrina took off, at least one of you, knew where she was; even if you kept it a fucking secret." Kember sighed and shook her head, "But when you take off, who, is fucking supposed to know where you are?"
    "I do!" Mia laughed. "And as long as I, know where, I, am, we're good!"
   "Well, Malice is a hell of a lot older than you are, Mia! She's been around longer, faced more battles, and she's got magic on her side!"
    "Says the Witch who swore off of magic, cause she was afraid she'd turn out like her Mother!" Mia snapped at her. "I don't know what your issue is, Kember, but you're getting on my last nerve!"
    "All I'm saying, is that if you can handle yourself out there, all alone...." But Mia had to stop her.
    "When you first arrived, and spoke of a kiss of death upon my lips.... " Mia shouted, "I died, Kember! I died in that arena, and yet somehow, I came back!"
    "My money is on your Mother!" Kember replied, still glaring back at her.
    "Well, what if it wasn't my Mother? What if it was something else entirely? We have no way of knowing for sure, and the female would never admit it!"
   "Madrina says..."
   "Madrina says a lot of things, and some times, he hopes get the better of her!"
     "So what are you, saying?" Kember was asking now, not demanding as she had before.
     " What if Malice, doesn't come back? Did you ever think of that?"
    Kember was silent for a time, sitting back in her seat as the stars passed by on the view screen. It was a good fifteen minutes or so, before Mia broke it up with a sigh.
   "Look, I know you have a thing going on..."
   "Uh, what now?" Kember acted so surprised.
   "You and Malice!" Mia laughed.
   "More like You, and Malice!" Kember rolled her eyes. "I've heard the stories! Nyx has a big mouth when offered Tequila!" She added, "I know all about your little tryst in the locker room, as well as the incident in the bath house."
   "Pretty sure it was you, she took in the shower room, not me!" Mia shook her head. "But it doesn't matter, the point is, that I know you care for her, and it's clouding your judgment!"
    Kember sat back, speechless. Did she truly know? Or was Mia bluffing, just waiting for her to spill the beans?
   "You know I can read your thoughts, right?" Mia chuckled, "You're not very good at this!"
   "I will ask you only once, to stay out of my head, Euphamia!"
   "Ouch! Full named! Damn!" Mia grinned, and continued to input a new set of coordinates and scan for possible enemy ships.
    "Where are we going?" Kember let out, "This is not the way to Moranis!"
    "No, this is the way to Melmar, which is beside Moranis; or did you want to bring the ship into enemy range?"
     "And then what?" Kember rolled her eyes, the anxiety and perhaps a touch of anger, growing within her.
    "Then we sneak ourselves in with the next batch of Warriors to go through the portal!"
    "Assuming it is still there!" Kember let out.
     "And if not, then we have Mother lower the shield." Mia sighed, and then let out a yawn. "Nyx said the portal would not acknowledge the lock, he didn't say it had registered as inactive."
    "But the blast..." Kember reminded her, "I didn't come back voluntarily, Mia! Something happened near the portal!"
    "So we get to Melmar and dial in from there! Not so good case, we end up donning cloaks and following the enemy in, worst case, the portal is toast and Mother lowers the shield for us!"
    "And anyone else who's waiting to get in."
   "That's a chance we'll have to take, since Malice can't follow orders."

                                                                                            ***

    It was getting brighter, the sun coming in through a nearby window, or was that a fireball from some nearby explosion? Malice couldn't tell, not with the way her vision was blurring and that buzz was still present in her ears. She had been asleep for a while now, passed right out after five bottles of Scotch and a few impersonations of her not so friendly, Pirate memories.
    Lifting herself from the ground, she searched for a bit of the... Fuck, she had no idea how to finish that line. Not right now, anyhow. Malice felt like she had been hit by a bus, carrying an entire tavern behind it that was fully stocked with all sorts of hideous brews. How much had she consumed? No, never mind. She didn't want to know. She just needed to find a little nip, before she made her way out in to the real world.
   It was then she heard the small whimper, half hunched over what was left of the bar. A whimper so soft, it could have only come from a child.
   "Hello?" Malice let out, only to be greeted by a gasp and the sound of scurrying feet.
    Taking off after the child, she passed by a broken mirror and took a good look at herself. Bloody hell! No wonder the young had run, she looked like she'd ridden the currents of a hurricane, hair all whipped about and dirt smudged all over the place. Damn!
    Finding a piece of cloth, she dripped some water from a nearby decanter into her palm, and tried her best to 'fix' herself. How was she to rescue this child, if she couldn't get close to it?
    Out what was left of the door and across the ransacked street, she followed the footprint in the ash, all the way to a rickety old boardwalk and down along what used to be the waterfront. The river was a nasty looking green color, the ships that had docked, half sunk and still burning; but at the end of one dock, she found the child, shivering with tears behind a crate.
    "Come!" Malice let out, offering the child her hand, but the pale blue eyes framed in rusty brown hair, shut tight as if to make her disappear. "It's alright, little one! I will not hurt you!"
    Still, the little child with eyes so... hidden beneath a cloak of filth, remained silent.
   "Please? This is no place, for a child!"
    "This is, my home!" The voice squeaked out, the voice of a young female.
    "This, was, your home!" Malice sighed and closed her eyes, "We must find you some place safe and someone to look after you!"
     "I want my Momma!" The voice let out, followed bu another shudder as something exploded nearby.
    "Come, let us find your Momma!" Malice sighed, ad felt the tiny fingers clasped her hand. "What is your name?" She inquired, hoisting the child to her feet as she remembered another child...
    "Basheena!" The young let out, her head still hung as she followed Malice back to shore.
    What? But she had just... an the vision of her daughter passed by her eyes once more.
     "Bathsheba?" Malice let out, only to watch the young nod her head. What the hell?
    "And do you have any siblings?"
    "No!" The child shook her head and the hood fell about her shoulders.
     "And where did you live? Here in the village?"
     "No, we are from Melmar!" She replied through tears. "We came through the ring, my Papa was trading with someone and then the monsters showed up! I ran, like Papa told me to! I didn't want to end up in the temple..."
     "What's so bad about the temple?" Malice inquired, her curiosity going over board.
    That was twice now, the child had mentioned something odd... Coincidence? Uhhhh....
      "I don't know! Papa said it was a sacred place, but those who went there, got lost!" The child muttered away as they walked through the streets.
    The view reminded Malice of an old school city she had visited once; or more like, invaded. She had been working for a Commander with a knack for 'impressive' things, and she was one of hundreds who were sent out after the bombs had dropped, to collect said 'impressive' artifacts for the home of the fallen. Morbid? Yes, worth it? The coin was good, and Malice had needed it; but the Commander was a dick, and she had made sure to dance on his ashes when he finally passed.
    Humans, they never lasted long, though many had sought the fabled fountain of youth; one hundred and twenty years, max!
    "Or maybe, it was that the temple itself, was lost?" The child spat out, and Malice stopped dead in her tracks.
    "Who told you of the temple?" Malice asked again, had it been the Father? Was that what she had said? Who was the Father?
    "Papa did!" The young female replied, pulling her hood back up as they rounded a corner. "He said that Momma had visited there once..."
    "And what did she see?"
     "No one knows! She never came back!"
    "Huh!" Malice wasn't so sure that she was telling the truth, but they carried on walking none the less.
     "Where are we going?" The child asked.
    "I don't know! I'm not from here!" Malice replied.
    "You're not?"
    "No, I am not!"
    "Where are you from?" She asked again, at little calmer and full of questions.
   "I live among the stars!" Malice told her.
   "Really? Like a God? Have you seen the Gods?" The child grinned so wide, Malice could see it beneath her hood.
    "No, I am not a God!"
    "But you're met one, right?" The young child stopped her, looking up into Malice's eyes. "You know where they live, right?"
    "No, I don't know any Gods!"
    "Oh! I thought maybe you lived with them, in the temple." The child sighed. "I'd like so very much to see it!"
    "So would I!" Malice smiled, though there was something about the child that made her hair stand on end.
   "If you live among the stars, you should know the Gods!" The young female laughed, no longer consumed by the guilt, of losing, well, everything.
    Gone were the tears, the shakes and the shivers; replaced by an eerie sort of calm, and Malice wasn't having it. "I've heard stories!" She let out with a sigh, "That the Gods live in the center of this very Verse!" She added with a smile, and set off towards what had once been the portal.
   "Really? On which planet?" The child's eyes filled with wonder, a brighter blue than they had been before.
   "I don't know!" Malice laughed. "But I should like to visit it some day. Now come, let us find you something to eat!"

                                                                                        ***