Floating Stars

Chapter 28: The Violet Light

Cold and murky was the cave that Pugnum decided to dwell in. The atmosphere fit the darkness that possessed him perfectly. He sat on his throne that swirled with black and deep purple smoke. He revelled in the attention of his worshipping followers who bowed before him with their foreheads pressed into the cold, damp ground; followers, stolen at night, created through Noir-Astra's power to become obedient puppets. 

An eerie silence ruled the still air surrounding them. Only the occasional, distant, dripping sound gave the place any sort of character.

"What was that magic?" Pugnum's voice echoed from unmoving lips. "Why were we not prepared? I thought you were all knowing, oh, great Lord of Darkness!" Sarcasm coloured Pugnum's words that swirled through the smoke.

"Don't mock me, Pugnum!" Noir-Astra's rumbling warned.

"But you said, all we need to do is possess Astrid. That's all it will take to snub out the light." Now that Pugnum had been exposed to such intense evil, Noir-Astra's booming voice no longer affected him the same way. "Your plan was - we grab the cursed girl, turn her eyes dark, and she'll do the rest. Did you simply not foresee her defences? Now what do we do?" Pugnum's voice rose in rage, making his puppets cower in fear.

"The plan doesn't need to change," Noir-Astra hissed his response.

"Doesn't it? It didn't work! We failed!" Pugnum got to his feet aggressively, as if squaring up to the very air around him. As he moved, his followers scurried in all directions - so to not get caught up in his fury.

"We just need to try again."

Pugnum slowly sat back down on his throne - made of darkness itself. A childish scowl carved into the porcelain mask that sat upon his face. His thoughts swam in circles, as he played out what happened with Astrid and the Sprèintis lads, in his mind; the defeat stoking a fire of familiar resentment inside of him.

"Her eyes glowed violet…" he thought aloud to himself. "Violet, and the shadows ran. The darkness ran from her violet eyes…" Confusion laced his erratic words. "It makes no sense! The prophecy says that her violet eyes will end the light. Yet, we were threatened by their power. Noir-Astra, explain this!" 

"Don't think on it Pugnum, the prophecy is set, it will come to pass," Noir-Astra answered with certainty.

"You have such faith in that "all-seeing" family?"

"Well, they proved their loyalty." Noir-Astra backed the Fiosolim family to his appointed face. "They handed their son to me."

"Jameh-Lius?"

"That's him, a legend now, the vessel who fathered the cursed child."

"Your child."

"Technically, yes." No warmth found its way within the cruel hiss of Noir-Astra's tone. "She will bring forth the light's end. All we have to do is steal her mind."

"How do we do that?"

"It's simple really. Brute force didn't work. Therefore, we approach her in a different way." An evil cackle then echoed through Pugnum's mind.

"What? What's funny?" The annoyance Pugnum felt fuelled the aggressiveness in his voice.

"The people of Natanstrelle did half the job for us. They made her feel like an outcast, all we have to do is step in and deepen her doubts."

A sudden light of realisation entered Pugnum's eyes. A clear plan started to root itself into his scheming brain. A plan that felt impossible to fail and his porcelain mouth cracked into a grin of dark delight.