Seven Sinful Crowns

Rayne Red

Rayne ran her long white fingers down the arms of her throne, relishing in the smoothness of the gold and the sharp edges of the rubies it encased. This had been her mothers throne, once, a long, long time ago, and now it was hers. Alone in the throne-room, she sat, staring into the empty space. Her mother had been a powerful mage in a land known as Saileen, once. She had been beautiful and brave and a light mage, with the ability to turn to to light itself. This is how she, a spy for the Saileen army, had slipped through the walls of Zuhaleen and enchanted the king, her apple red lips pressing into his as she slipped the dagger from her waist. He hadn't expected a thing, for Snow, as they called her, held many gifts - an uncommon phenomenon. She was able to turn to light, yes, iridescent shimmers that slipped through halls and windows, but she was also a weaver, and the two combined proved a deadly combination. While she could slip between barriers, physical and otherwise, she could also weave thoughts, memories, and this is precisely what she did.

She slipped from her tent among the Saileen armies, within the Mage's quarters, and through Zuhaleens men; the archers, the mages and all, right into the castle, but only after finding one of his guards to break the protection spells, of course, with a small weave of his mind. His eyes went blank within his heavy head, and then curious, and then knowing, as he remembered an order never given...not really...to pull the barrier enchantment from the entrance to castle, and in she slipped.

The king never had a chance.

When all was said and done, she left, again through the front door, a bloody dagger in her hand and a life in her belly, and a vengeance that burned through it all.

She returned to Saileen long enough to secure passage through the unknown seas, with seven ships - gifts, the king had given with a woven thought, and seven captains and seven crews, all stringed together in her fragile web of deceit, and they set out to cross the purple ocean, and the blue, and the pink that lies between, to the starsea...and beyond.

With her crews, she had traveled to the other side of the world, and found an ocean of dust,a sea of starlight, and mountains that gleamed with diamonds in the moon. She saw no one at first...not a soul, but on the tenth day she came to the opening of a tunnel deep within the stone peaks of the new land, and followed the sound of whistling men and falling rocks. Only they were not men at all, but beasts, chained to the cave walls they worked, carving diamonds from the stone even as their bodies gave out to exhaustion. She watched from within the shadows as their masters sent whips screaming through the air only to land on the open wounds of the pitiful beasts, who no longer cried out, so accustomed to the lashings. A small part of her wanted to run to the whip wielding masters - the only humans she had seen in three years aside from her dwindling crew, but she didn't. She stayed put, and watched, and plucked from the diamond cave thoughts, stringing them together like stars, and waited.

When the masters left for the night, the beasts lay tired and broken in their locks. Her heart shook, but her voice never quivered as she stepped from the shadows and spoke.

"I call upon the sisters of night,

Cloak me in your presence.

Borrow me your will and might

And take forth my penance."

The beasts lashed out hissing, yanking at their chains, but she stood her ground.

"Hush, beastlies. I have come to set you free...at a price."

And the oldest beast stepped forward, white hairs curling along his chest and chin, skin wrinkled and sagging around bones that creaked as he stood.

"And what price might a human woman want from us?"

"I am not but a human woman. I am a light magess, and I will set you free. All I ask is a promise."