BATTLE SCARS: (Indigo Symbols Book II)

Chapter Seventy-Seven: Light Em Up, Lingua, D'argento

SARAH:
    "Now you know, pretty little thing." It said. "Now you know our history, our reasons, our desires, I hope it tortures you, makes you bleed inside." The Ragni Di Morte made the web shudder as they all shifted, making me sway again, turn, and spin slightly. One yanked me up and I felt the world shift too fast, then I slammed against the web. "Now," one said. "Now, we feast on your terror, your fear, then, your flesh and blood." They crowded around me, and I felt venom drip on to the web, just inches from my face. I couldn't help it now, I screamed, screamed for Huntor, for Reina, for Wenzi, Seeka, for anyone. The Ragni Di Morte laughed hard as they all moved around me, venom splashing, pincers snapping excitedly. Then, one began to unravel the silk on my tiny booted feet. I bucked, unable to stay frozen anymore. They laughed, "Your struggles entertain us, pretty, little, thing." I felt a claw on my left small foot, then it twitched. White hot pain as my bone snapped. I bellowed, crying harder than ever. "Taste her terror, taste her fears, then, her bone, hear how it snaps." Another bone in that same small foot. I cried out. They laughed, and, and, and another bone snapped in my small left foot. I cried, screaming with absolute, unhinged terror. "PLEASE." I yelled. "Please, stop this, please, please please, PLEASE." I screamed as they snapped my other small foot. My right foot went still, and pain shot through every inch of my being. I felt something shudder against my spine. I struggled worse than ever, trying, but failing. The Ragni Di Morte laughed as another bone in that foot snapped. "Taste it." I screamed. "Taste it all, love it all, need it all."
    I felt them move over my legs, unravelling as they went. "No, No, NO." More venom, more agony unlike anything I'd ever felt. "Taste her, taste the pretty thing's terror." Bones snapping, one, after one, after one, after, one, after, one. That same shudder in my spine. Then, then, then I felt weight between my shoulder blades, something broke from the top of my suite, right over my butt, moving like a, like a, like a, then the weight behind my shoulders shifted, grew, grew, and grew. The Ragni Di Morte didn't notice, just kept breaking me, snapping bones, but the pain in my feet, my small feet dulled, dulled, as if they were being healed. My hip bone snapping, then, then my shins being healed. I felt that weight shift, weight over my shoulders, then, then, then impossibly, a voice, a, voice, from the darkness above. "I think, that's, enough. Don't you, Theia?" Then, then, then, impossibly, Theia's voice, "I agree Huntor, let's, light, em, up." Something told me to change my eyes and they returned to normal as fire, bright and golden appeared high, high above. The Ragni Di Morte screamed and scattered, but it was too late. "My songs," Huntor said coolie, "Know what you did, in the dark. So, light, em, up." Theia blasted fire over the webs, and i got a good look at it. Huge, so, so, huge, bigger than the White-House, than any building I'd ever seen before. Fire spread over the webs faster than you could say, "Fall Out Boy." Then Theia swept for me, as Huntor laid waste to any that escaped.
    She landed beside me, her wings shifting, then a sword flashed and she said, "Hold still." She slashed and swiped, cutting me free. When she got to my shoulders, she swore, viciously. "Drac'on too." Then, she began cutting behind my shoulders, then lifted me into her arms, "Hold on." I did, as much as I could, and we flew up to meet Huntor, and, and Reina. Huntor flipped one of those daggers and said, "Next time Sarah, don't be a temple runner." Despite everything I went through, I laughed. "She needs healing." Theia said. "Her Drac'on blood will have started the process, but she needs an actual healer." Huntor nodded and said, "Rey, you guard her, while Theia and I settle the score, we don't take too kindly to our loved ones being tortured." Reina nodded and Huntor spread his wings, blue-white wings, talons at his fingers, then he swept down. The Ragni Di Morte screamed as Huntor landed on their burning web, and laid slaughter to them.
    Huntor swung his staff, a kind of ire I'd only seen once before emanating from him in waves. All I could think was, "Audrey," as Huntor killed and killed. Theia, at his side, threw fire balls, and made waves of it appear, her golden wings flashing as she used them as weapons. Huntor vaulted over a burning section of web, and took down ten of those monsters before he even landed on the web. "Dio, Indaco." Reina muttered. Soon the web was alight with fire and all the spiders were either dying, or, already dead. Then, Theia flew Huntor up, and we stood for a moment, stood, and watched the destruction. Then, Huntor turned, and wrapped his arms around my waist. "Gods, oh skies thank the Gods you're ok." I whimpered and he pulled away, studying me with that beautiful blue eye. "You're hurt, badly." He laid me on the shelf, and hovered his hands over my body, healing me, just like he use to. When he was done, he said, "I'm so sorry Sarah, I'm so sorry we couldn't get to you in time. I ran my fingers over his arm, "I still held my own." I said weakly. "How much did I scream?" "I'm sure they heard you all the way to Australia, hell, possibly to both Heaven and Hell." He replied. Weakly, I laughed.
    "So, what now?" Reina asked. We found the Indigo library, is this where we start rebuilding the true Symbol?" She asked. Huntor wrapped his arms around my waist, holding me. I cuddled against him. "Yes." He said. "This is where we start rebuilding. But," He paused. "What did you find out Sarah, I know you stalled for time." I nodded. "They said they were behind it all, the Keepers, the wars, that their Dark Queen did it all. That she wanted to destroy the Higher-Beings once and for all, wanted to rule all Plains. Said, said that she would've during a war long ago, but someone, male, had enough power to detain her, to destroy all the Ragni Di Morte, and save the worlds. But, but she, she's rising again, and plots to take our world, along with the other Plains." "That explains the foot-soldiers." Theia said. "Foot soldiers?" I asked. "The first ones, the ones that appeared on the Communal Plain."
    "That also explains Hiquanna's motives." "Who?" Reina and I asked. "Kitana's biological wolf mother. She came to the Plain, before you summoned me here." Theia's voice was filled with fire, with fire, furor, and ire. "She tried to force Kitana to join her, to leave and become her Lieutenant, become her killer, her assassin, her favorite new toy." She said it with such repugnance, such hatred, "All Drac'ons hate her?" "She's nothing but a wolf with too much power, all for conquest and territory. She's not bad like the Dark Queen, but she, certainly, isn't good either." "What do we do?" Reina asked. "We already have this war to fight, we really have to fight in another?" Huntor's fingers trailed up and down my side, I shivered. He paused, as if realizing it. Then said, "We destroy the Keepers, if we can sway them, convince them there's a bigger threat, then we do so, otherwise, this war continues." He gently squeezed my hip. I shivered again. God, God what was it? Why did I want Huntor so much? "We finish this, because no matter what, the Indigo are back, Indigo, Indigo-Warriors, Indigo-Gods, and Half-Bloods. We're all back, and will remain that way. We'll finish this war, march through Bad Lands, and stop the Keepers in their base in California, then, then we'll handle this second war." We all held hands, held hands in the official start of our Symbol, in the Hall of Indigos, in the Indigo Library, where our histories were laid to be read. Where we could finally, finally, learn about who we truly were. Theia. Reached over and pressed her talons to my forehead, "Lingua D'argento." She said softly. "The Drac'on with a silver tongue. Able to talk her way out of anything, and bring down her enemies." "Silver Tongue." I translated. Theia bowed her head, and with that, we vanished into a portal, vanished, to finally, finish, this, war. Finish this war, and, march, through, Bad, Lands.