OathBlade (Wattys2015)

27. She Called It Beautiful*

The travellers gathered in the galley and Dakkan pushed out a barrel of ale. He pulled open the top as the others sat round the sturdy wooden table.

Elery scanned her group. "We carry a great power now—perhaps too great." She rested her hands on the table. "Are we not cautious—if I should fall in battle—Misani will fall with me. All source of etherium on Leria will dry. The death of spirit-kind would be slow and the seryn people would wither away with them. But timidity will not avail us either. If we should hide ourselves away to keep her safe, guarding my life at all cost by avoiding battle, our enemy will sweep over this land and take everything away, just as they have twice now.

"This war is now beyond revenge for our fallen brethren," she continued. "Our enemy does not recruit with propaganda or threats. Our foe steals the bodies of the dead. The fallen on the battlefield rise and join their side to grow their ranks immeasurably. We cannot contend with such a thing by sitting idly by and plotting." She stood and walked to the ale barrel with a thick wooden mug. "We must sweep others under our banner, and our protection, to fight as one against this phoenix. But before we may do so, we must know more." She glanced to Misani, who stood beside Isandel at the door to the dimly lit room. "They know the truth of our enemy. It is time we heard them out."

The dim lighting cast shadows over Misani's ghostly pale face as she walked closer. "Celestine came with Isandel at the turn of a great shift in consciousness."

The ship rocked and the hull groaned but she did not waver, even with such delicate hooves and spindly legs.

"She was a beautiful being with wings of fire," Isandel murmured. "A shining beacon to those around her. Your ancestors worshiped her as a goddess but she wanted none of it. She wanted only to guide them--she wished to help them prosper. But Celestine was a fragile thing...I never should have left her side, but we felt our aid was better given to many, rather than to few."

Elery looked at the dragon who stared down at the floor. His tail moved restlessly in small twitches and wags, brushing and thumping against the floor and wall.

"We'd come from a war-ravaged world," he continued. His tail thumped firmly against the wall. "We'd watched the deaths of many and fled to escape more of the same."

"The ancient lycar no longer fed from the ranks of the seryn," Misani said. "Instead the two species warred with each other over land. The seryn wished to push them from the forest. They wanted to domesticate all land under their rule. No matter how Celestine tried to pacify them, they would not stop."

"Conflict is inevitable among species. Could she not see that?" Cylphi asked.

"As is conflict within species. How calm did you feel when your kingdom was destroyed and your loved ones slaughtered?" Isandel snapped.

Cylphi jerked as if slapped. Her mouth hung open but her voice was muted.

"She loved life beyond all other things. To watch it so senselessly taken away..." Misani's tail hung limp behind her. "She resurrected a child for the first time in the depths of winter after a lycar raid left him dead in his mother's arms. But she did not recall his aura. His body moved though he had no life within him. She called it beautiful."

"Beautiful?" Taelin choked. "How could such a thing be beautiful?"

"Because he could not be slain," Isandel said. "The ancient seryn attempted to cut him down but her energy was bound within him. Rumor spread through the clans, across the vast wilderness, to eventually reach me. Rumors of a child who continued to walk about and play, even as his head rolled across the grass from the felling strike of his fellow clan members."

Elery ran her finger around the cracked rim of her mug and watched the sway of the overhead oil lantern. The rocking light shifted the shadows on Misani's face. "What are the necrocasters? What have they to do with her?"

"The necrocasters are those who see the beauty of her vision. A world of corpses, who can not die, nor possess the free will to kill. They channel her, as though channeling a familiar. They must be alive, for her power cannot be used by the dead. Like you, Elery, they need no auraclade. She replenishes their aura from her own ever-refilling supply. Where they go, they take her with them."

"Why did she wait?" Zethir folded his hands below his chin to prop his head upon his knuckles. "Ages passed between then and now."

"She did not wait," Isandel said. "Misani intervened."

A long, low moan ran the length of the ship as a wave crashed against the hull.

"I could not bear the thought of such a fate befalling the rest of Leria," Misani said. "So I gave the world two gifts. The first were the spirits. Fragments of myself. The other was etherium."

"But she had no time or ability to teach the seryn how to commune with these gifts." Isandel glanced up to the chain supporting the lantern, or perhaps to lantern itself. "Celestine came upon the seryn I'd settled among, and the one child proved to be only the beginning. She'd raised two hundred more. The whole of the clan which embraced her. They moved as gruesome puppets, playing at living, while their flesh slowly rotted from their bones. I attacked her, though I knew I could not destroy her. When she realized what Misani had done—what she had given the seryn—she grew furious. Crazed. She knew such a gift could be used for yet more war, I suppose. So her attack turned from me to Misani."

"And he took a near-fatal blow in my stead," Misani said. "But even in his weakened state he found strength enough to seal both Celestine and myself within crystals. I was taken to the forest to be kept safe while Isandel recovered from his wounds. Celestine's crystal was given to the seryn with one task: they were to hide it so that none would find it."

"Where did they hide it?" Cylphi asked.

"Isn't it obvious?" Elery stood. "They hid it in the eastern mountains. They hid it where Bethgardel now stands."

Misani nodded once. "Your perception is quite sharp. The ancient seryns bound her there; the crystal she inhabits cannot be moved. But it seems she has been found. She will guide her allies to bring before her one who can release her, and that will become her vessel."

"But what-" Cylphi was interrupted by a loud screech from above, followed by screaming deck-hands.

Elery turned from the table and ran upstairs, holding the railing as the ship pitched to the side. Fierce waves throttled the ship and the wind, once calm, picked up as night encroached and storms moved in once more. A gust howled through the sails of the ship. It was not the wind which made the horrid shrieking coming from the dimming sky.

Unfortunately, she could not see what was.