Mikansia made a promise to her friend, Jabez, beyond the confines of the living: to find and help his four children find safety. Setting out for the Argentum Empire, Mikansia discovered it was being invade by the Demon Queen of Light, Golau. After having defeated The Hound, a creature comprised of the corpses of unwilling undead. Now she has to find this child in the middle of an undead invasion.
Lore notes: Starting with this post Andy, Lena, and I decided that elven pronouns should be different than human ones, given that Grief is a far more prevalent part of their lives than sex. Elves can tell by a glance what level of grief is on an elf's heart. The classifications are, roughly:
Grief 0-3: mu/mul (To make the pronoun possessive add an l at the end)
Grief 4-7: dai/dail
Grief 8-9: ta/tal
Grief 10, but not yet sailed: tor/torl
Mikansia sliced into Argentum Reskartum from Dream, near where ta knew Jabez's first child was. The hole ta cut into Dream, which was dragon-sized for Fish, began to close almost immediately. Mikansia and Nomi got through relatively easily, but Fish was almost cut in half. Argentum Reskartum, last time Mikansia had seen it, was a ruin coming back to life. The lyhyt had begun to rebuild the capital city of the Argentum Empire while Mikansia had been hiding out in it, waiting for ta's year to finish up. By the time Mikansia had left Argentum Reskartum had almost entirely recovered.
For a second Mikansia had wondered if ta had somehow cut back in time again.
Argentum Reskartum was beyond a ruin, with dust clouds that choked Mikansia's lungs; something big was going down.
The pillar of fire almost didn't surprise ta. Almost. But Marian being on the other end of it, working as hard as she could to not be burned alive by it? That did surprise Mikansia.
Marian hit the dusty ground with a sickening crack, which could be heard over the roar of the flames that were just now dispersing. A fell light overwhelmed Nomi and Fish; only Mikansia stood in the wreckage, staring at the Demon Queen of the Horrific Light: Golau. Mikansia could feel her malevolence, the raw power.... and the curiosity of Golau, who walked right up to ta. Mikansia stared back, completely unbowed light in a sea of sickening radiance. No one had done such a thing in over a millennium, until now. Mikansia would never run away. Not ever again. And Golau sensed it.
The earth shook as Fish roared. And charged. Golau held up her hand. Fish's huge form hung in mid-air. Golau was bemused. "You're not a dragon at all. You've been cursed to imitate one. Let's fix that."
A dark and terrible dagger, a Dagger of Betrayal, came flying out of Fish's head. And then he was a dwarf. The monstrous dragon had just turned into a dwarf, in an eyeblink. His injuries were awful; changing forms hadn't cured the wounds the dwarf had sustained while he was a dragon.
Mikansia drew Sydanelma with the loud and angry ring of the righteous.
Golau looked at the blade, puzzled. with a flick of her finger Sydanelma flew toward her, so Golau could get a better look.
But Mikansia didn't let go. Ebony knuckles grey with the strain ta reoriented talself, turning the magical yank into a magically aided mid-air charge. With a blood-curdling cry Mikansia put all tal weight into one stab. Sparks flew off the myriad magical barriers surrounding Golau; Mikansia felt herself slowing down. So ta planted tal feet back on the ground and pushed with all tal might. Something invisible, but more real than the ground Mikansia was pushing tal heels into, shattered under Sydanelma. With another feral scream Mikansia pushed tal weapon through the break in reality into Golau's shoulder, slicing bone. "No. One. Takes. Sydanelma. From ME." growled Mikansia, teeth bared in a snarl.
The world around Mikansia whirled and turned in a confusing maelstrom as ta flew through the air, back smashing into one of the few walls left in this section of Argentum Prime. All the air in tal body had been knocked cleaned out it. But ta still had Sydanelma. Golau stood over ta, holding her bleeding shoulder. "I'm impressed. I've not met someone with your potential in over a thousand years. This-" Golau indicated her shoulder "-is truly impressive."
Shaking, Mikansia stood up, ready to charge. If ta was going to die it would be swinging. And ta had no doubt that Golau would kill ta. Golau's power was so vast that ta could feel it humming beneath ta feet. The air crackled with Golau's presence. But Mikansia would never, ever, ever be afraid, never again. But ta needed to get the hell out of there. Marian needed ta. So did Jabez's child.
Something hit the ground right behind Golau. Everything went in dust and debris, including the wall behind Mikansia. Ta shut tal eyes. When ta opened them again ta saw Tyce. Well, Tyce glowing from head to toe, anyway. "Tyce?? What the the hell is this??" asked Mikansia, after taking a second to screw tal jaw back in.
"Oh, um, I'm with Telos" said Tyce, as sheepish as a dead man could be.
"Where was this back at Elfwatch?? We could have really used what you're doing now, then!" ta said, a light mocking smile at tal lips.
"I... uh... I didn't remember. It's a long story. Look, there's the Demon Queen of the Undead a quarter mile that way, picking hserlf up off the ground. Can we talk about this later? I had already relocated everyone else inside the blast radius. They may need you."
Mikansia chuckled and helped the still dazed Nomi up. "Oh, we'll be talking about this" ta said, indicating Tyce's glowing ethereal form. "You can bet on it." Tyce smiled a bit nervously and was gone.
All of a sudden they were all standing in normal sunlight. Mikansia blinked in the sudden overwhelming brightness, even as ta basked in it. From the sky descended a human in gold: Telos. Mikansia had met Telos before, briefly, while ta was waiting for tal year to be up. Telos had hardly said a word, had dressed plainly... not like this. Telos's feet barely made an impression on the ground as he walked past Mikansia, blue skies almost as bright as the light that emanated from him. "Thank you Mikansia. You've done far more good than you'll ever know." He patted ta on the shoulder. And then he was gone. And the light with him. A sonic boom occurred a quarter mile to the east. Mikiansia looked over and saw seven points of rainbow light in the darkness orbiting an intense darkness. The lights danced up and down and around this darkness, and each time they touched the darkness the earth shook.
Mikansia trudged north, helping Nomi carry the unconscious dwarf . Nomi kept giving the unconscious dwarf looks of consternation. And Mikansia couldn't blame tal for doing so. A dwarf, of all things?? Nasty things that lived in the ground...
"MIKANSIA!!" interrupted tal reverie.
A total stranger of a lyhyt ran past Mikansia and tackled Nomi (leaving Mikansia with the heavy dwarf), burying tal in hugs and kisses and tears. All the blood was gone from Nomi's ebony face.
Mikansia, for tal part, was beyond amused. "Mikansia, huh?" tal said. Nomi was in shock mouthing words over and over at Mikansia. Mikansia realized ta probably should feel badly. But that didn't change that Mikansia felt incredibly amused at the horror show before ta.
The lyhyt helped helped Nomi to tal feet. "I'm Constantine," he said to Mikansia, tears of joy staining his cheeks. "You.. you know my wife?"
"Oh yes, but ta hasn't mentioned you. I'm Nomi," said Mikansia with a grin that almost made Nomi throw up. "We've been travelling together awhile."
"Well thank you for that, I thought she was dead! The note that was left.. I thought they'd killed you!"
"I... I've been trying to get back to you," stammered Nomi. Mikansia had to step away, ta was too close to a laughing fit.
And that was when ta saw mu. The Child. Mu was snuggled up to a lyhyt female. Those were Jabez's eyes, looking out at ta. The lyhyt looked up at Mikansia and went pale. "Are... are you his mother?"
Mikansia sat down next to the lyhyt. "No, but I have been looking for mu. I mean, him," she clarified to the confused lyhyt woman. "I needed to make sure... he... was safe."
The hilt of of Mikansia's sword could be seen peeking around the woman's knee. The sword that Mikansia had originally exchanged for Jabez's, which had become Sydanelma. Mikansia had given her sword, the sword made for her by the Sword Singers, to a male lyhyt smuggler, in order to possibly return his sword to Jabez. And there it was. Right by her knee. The woman tracked Mikansia's stare. "I'm Yvette. You know that sword."
Mikansia nodded. "Mikansia. And yes, I do. It's been a lifetime since I saw it."
"My husband had gotten it in payment for dropping an elf off at the Iron Forest. After Elfharrow fell he couldn't get the elf out of his mind. He needed to know what had happened to her. So I went with him. And that's when we found... him," Yvette said, looking at The Child with glistening eyes. "We could count his ribs. We'd just lost one of our own, so I put him up to my breast and... and... " Yvette choked and then cleared her throat. "It worked. It worked. But then she.. some female elf... she strode out, after the child. Something in her eyes. My husband... he gave me this sword and told me to run. And I've not stopped running since." Yvette gave Mikansia a look that rended tal heart into thousands of bits. "He's all I have left. Him and this sword. Please... please don't!" she begged, face twisted into a mask of anguish.
Mikansia gazed at The Child with Jabez's eyes. A longing she had never anticipated washed over Mikansia. Ta couldn't tell if it was the part of Jabez that was now with Mikansia, or ta as well, or some odd combination of both. It didn't matter: The Child was staring back, snuggling against the breast of his mother; Yvette was just that. "I came to make sure mu was safe. I can see mu's safe with you. But are you both safe?" ta asked. Yvette shook her head fearfully. "Then I'm here to get you out, to somewhere safe. Please trust me. Come with me," Mikansia requested, as tal heart ached, looking at The Child.
"I can help you with that." Tyce appeared next to them in the gloom. "You can't cut to Dream right now. When Telos does something it affects all the layers of reality." Tyce was grinning ear to ear. "We did it Mikansia! We killed Golau. And its' because of you did to her. Her defenses were compromised. Thank you for that." Mikansia stared back up at her friend, a bit in shock. "I was told to give you this," Tyce said with a wry chuckle. "It's given with the sincerest thanks of Autarch Telos."
Tyce handed Mikansia a sword so dark that even its sheath drank in the meager light. Ta examined the sword with skeptical eyes. "I already have a sword I quite like."
"You'll know when you'll need it," reassured Tyce. Mikansia nodded, strapping the extra blade to tal back, hesitatingly. "Where do you want to go?"
Mikansia had barely said "Vigilance", where Decima lived, when they were in Decima's kitchen. Decima looked up and smiled. "Oh good, you're home! Who's this?" she asked, walking up to Constantine and Yvette.
"I'm Yvette. This.. this is Alexis," said said, point at The Child.
Mikansia couldn't help but look at Alexis again. Ta had been trying to figure out what to say to Alexis. Something needed to be said. Sitting next to Alexis ta finally introduced herself. "I'm Mikansia. I... I was a friend of your father, Jabez."
Alexis continued to gaze at Mikansia with Jabez's eyes. Only they weren't just Jabez's, not anymore. They belonged to Alexis, too.
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