Neverquest – Part 148

Characters: Master Luna, Kendira, ???
Location: The Black Widow’s Walk, a tavern in Gravewater
Time: Day 5 – Midday

“W-who are you?” Kendira stuttered. Her eyes had quickly fallen to the floor.

The creature gazed down at her with a grin that could shatter glass.

“Kendira,” Luna said, putting a protective hand on her apprentice’s shoulder. “I would like you to meet Hadie, Arch Lichess of the Forsaken tribe.”

Kendira watched her own knees tremble. “…You…you are Hadie?”

“In the flesh,” the creature gleamed, leaning in close. “…Or at least, what’s left of it.” Then, pushing back her robed sleeves, she reached out a bony finger and touched Kendira’s chin. “Come. Let me see your face, child.”

Kendira couldn’t resist. She wanted to—she even tried to—but there was something in Hadie’s touch that made her body fall limp, like a marionette without a master. Unwillingly, her chin was thrust upward and she found herself looking into the eyes of a Woman who had been dead for five hundred years.

It was enough to make her blood run cold.

“She’s just as beautiful as you promised me,” Hadie cackled, tipping Kendira’s head to the side so she wouldn’t miss a single feature. “When you live among the dead for as long as I have, you lose appreciation for mortal life. But not me, child. Your kind has always fascinated me.”

“That’s enough,” Luna said.

“How old are you, child?”

“T-twenty-six,” Kendira sputtered. Again, she wasn’t sure if she had control over her body, or if Hadie had forced her to speak.

Hadie reached behind Kendira, grabbed a clump of her hair, and sniffed it through whatever she used for a nose. “Mmm… It’s amazing what the arcane arts can do for age. Can you believe I’ll be celebrating my six hundredth birthday soon?” She released Kendira’s hair. “In time, you’ll look just like me. The arcane arts can do a lot for you, but they can’t save you from death.”

“I said that’s enough!” Luna repeated, bolder this time. “I will not have you harassing my student, Hadie.”

The creature hissed and pointed her finger away from Kendira. “That goes the same for you, Luna. Your beauty is not everlasting.”

“And neither is my patience. I didn’t travel all this way so you could fill the heart of my best student with your fear of the afterlife.”

“She has to face it sooner or later, if she’s to understand any of this.”

“The time for that is at my discretion. Not yours, Hadie.”

“Fool!” the creature snapped, her lower jaw coming loose for a moment. “You’re still young, Luna. You still think time is on your side.”

“Do you have a place we can talk in private?”

Hadie gazed around the tavern room. Anybody who had been listening in on their conservation quickly turned away.

“Yes,” she said. “We’ll sit at that table in the corner.”

Kendira followed Hadie’s finger to the table. There were at least six brawny pirates huddled in the corner, guzzling down rum and peanuts. Each one of them had to be at least twice her size.

“Maybe we should find a spot that’s empty,” Kendira said.

Hadie started for the table. “It will be.”

Sure enough, before she was within throwing distance of the table, the pirates had given up their seats and scurried towards the door. They were in such a rush that they left their mugs on the table.

“Rum,” Hadie cackled. “I’d have some, but it passes right through me.”

But Kendira’s eyes were elsewhere. She looked around the room and noticed everybody had fallen silent. None of their eyes were on her, and yet she felt they were all watching her.

No, not her… Hadie.

There was something about her…

“Kendira,” Luna said, tugging on her arm. “What did I tell you about wandering eyes?”

Kendira shook out of her trance. Luna and Hadie were already seated. She quickly slid onto the bench next to Luna and straightened her cape.

“I’m sorry,” she said. “I just…”

But attention had already drifted away from her.

“I don’t like meeting in a place like this,” Luna said, glaring across the table at the Arch Lichess.

“You’re more welcome in Gravewater than I have ever been in your haughty, do-right kingdom.”

“Ellewyn’s a good place to live. It’s come a long way since you’ve lived here.”

“Your Queen is a fool. She is willing to start a war that will end all life on this planet. And for what? A race that should’ve been wiped out centuries ago? A people who can’t even defend themselves? Men…” She laughed, but it wasn’t out of humor. “Men have been dangling by a string for too long. Their time is over. For my kind, for yours…and for you, my mortal flesh.”

Here, she eyed Kendira and didn’t hold back another dreadful grin.

“But you said it yourself,” Kendira whispered. She didn’t realize her voice would be so shaky until she had spoken. “Men can’t defend themselves. If we don’t help them, who will?”

“Let your goddess take care of them. Yes, let Dai Celesta deal with her own abomination.”

“Men deserve a chance to live, too! Just because you’re dead doesn’t mean life should stop for everyone.”

“Mind your manners, Kendira,” Luna said.

But Hadie raised her hand. “No. You brought her to this place and haven’t told her a thing. I think the child has earned the right to speak her mind. After all…” She licked her bony lips. “She’s so full of life. Don’t you hunger for that again, Luna?”

Luna was silent.

So was Kendira, for a moment, and then she gathered her courage and spoke again. “…While Master Luna was away, I was confronted by a group of Women and Men. I didn’t know what to make of them at first, but they wanted to help prevent Sorena’s resurrection. I told them of the legend of the sacred beetle…the elemental lore that’s been guarded by the Arcane Order since the death of Sorena...and they agreed to join me in reuniting the four pieces. Together, we’ve already obtained one of those pieces—the Scarab of Earth.”

“Terragolem was weak,” Hadie said. “I blame that on the druids. Terra Thule is too old to rule the forest anymore. And Katrina and Lexis are too wild and young at heart to do it right… I should’ve burned that Enchanted Forest to the ground when I had the chance.”

“But we’ve proven we can do it!” Kendira argued. “We… Women and Men. Together, we can obtain the three remaining pieces. We can defeat Sorena. We can—”

Hadie broke out into a fit of hysterical laughter. “Do you know how many hands the Scarab of Earth has passed through since Sorena’s death? It’s the only piece that has yet to find a competent owner. Your friends—the ones who possess the earthen symbol now—will soon lose it. And it really doesn’t matter to whom, does it? The other three pieces of the beetle will not be moved from where they rest and have rested for over five hundred years. Their guardians are too strong, too knowing of the power the completed amulet possesses… Unlike that old wench Terra Thule. She was careless.”

“Or maybe you just underestimated the power of Men.”

Hadie’s grin vanished. “…I’ve been watching you and your friends, Kendira. Men had nothing to do with obtaining the Scarab of Earth. The piece…more or less…fell into their laps.”

“Then perhaps it’s fate.”

“…Fate, you say?”

“That somebody makes a stand against Sorena.”

“And you think you can do this, child?”

Kendira held her palms against the edge of the table and shook her head. “No… Not me.”

“But you were hoping your master—Luna—could do it.”

Kendira’s eyes drifted over o her left, where Luna sat in a dark sort of silence. “…I’ve never seen her fail at anything.”

“She’d fail at this. I’ve seen Sorena’s work. When she was alive, as young and full of life and flesh as you, she wouldn’t bow to anyone. She knew what she was meant for. And now? She’s had half a millennia to gain power. She knows the secrets of arcane languages that have been lost for ages and she has more influence in the afterlife than even me. There will be no stopping her… Look at your master now and realize that all your nightmares are about to be real.”

“…It’s true, my dear apprentice,” Luna said before Kendira could look at her, to see the shame in her face. “I went to the Forsaken lands with the Royal Queen of Felwinter and Hadie to see the future of our world. I came to know the inevitable truth that we will soon face… And I chose the only course of action that could save us.”

“That’s a selfish end for us all,” Kendira whispered. “What about the Men you swore to protect…?”

“I protected them for as long as I can.”

“Until your own life was at stake… Is that it, …Master?”

“Please, Kendira. It’s not that simple.”

“I truly hope it’s not.”

Luna looked down at her with such pity that Kendira felt sorry she had ever taken this journey. What was this place anyway? Why were they sitting around a table with the Arch Lichess herself—the one body, the one without a soul, who she would last expect her master to be consorting with?

What did they have planned?

“She’s too hesitant,” Hadie said at last. “You told me you would’ve convinced her by now, Luna.”

Luna quickly jumped to her apprentice’s defense. “She’s not hesitant. She’s careful.”

“Ha! Is that something you taught her?”

“Yes. And you should be glad she’s as careful as she is… It means she’s less likely to defect when she realizes the life of everybody in this kingdom depends on her.”

“On me?” Kendira echoed. “Why me?”

“You’re the chosen one.”

“Please don’t say that…”

“It’s true,” Hadie said. “We chose you. Your master and I knew you were the only one who could carry out this job.”

“You want me to help destroy Penee?” Kendira started to rise. “Is that it?”

Hadie cackled.

“No,” Luna assured her. “I wouldn’t ask that of you.”

“But indirectly, I…”

“Yes. You would be helping to put an end to Penee and all the Men who live there.”

Kendira fell back onto the bench. “You know I can’t do that, Master… That stands against everything I believe in.”

“Belief…” Hadie smirked. “Belief is for the living and hopeful. That will soon die.”

“It will have to before I agree to rid this land of so many innocent lives.”

“You don’t have to do it for me,” Luna said. “And you certainly don’t have to do it for the scum across the table. But do you love your kingdom? Do you love the royal family and the citizens you grew up with?”

“Of course I do.”

“Many will die by Sorena’s hand,” Hadie said. “My own people—the ones you call Forsaken—have spent the past five hundred years being tortured by her in the afterlife. All the while, Men have continued to walk this earth, bringing plagues to children in the streets, stealing food from the Women they had abused in the past, ignorant to all the pain they are inflicting upon the world. Kendira… Men have been the cause of war and hunger and disease since the beginning of time. Sorena didn’t bring those things to you. They did.”

“Indirectly…”

“Does that mean they’re not without blame?”

“I think we all share some blame in this. The right steps haven’t been made to deal with—”

“What would you have us do, child? Would you have us turn our backs on the ones we love?”

“N-no…”

Hadie clasped her bony fingers on the table. “The way I see it, you mortals and I have a lot in common today. We both want to see our race prevail through the dark years to come…and we can both see it happen. It isn’t often that we’re in agreement about such things.”

“And let’s hope it doesn’t come to this again,” Luna said, turning away. “Your kind makes me sick to my stomach.”

“Speaking of which, I do hope you’re hungry after your long journey. I took the liberty of ordering you both something to eat. Something…I think you will enjoy very much.”

With a snap of her fingers, one of the bartenders immediately rushed over to the table and set down three plates with mush on them. She then cleared the mugs off the table and another waitress came back with their drinks. She started passing them out.

Luna stopped her when she reached across the table to put down Kendira’s drink. “No alcohol for the little one.”

“…Master,” Kendira said, “I’m twenty-six years old. I’m allowed to drink.”

“I don’t care. I don’t want you drinking this poison.”

“Poison?” Hadie laughed. “Yes, I suppose it was the alcohol that did me in.”

“It certainly didn’t help with your complexion.”

“Touché.” Hadie raised her glass, which was filled with a dark red liquid and a little umbrella that jutted over the rim. “Here’s to us, children.”

Luna ignored her and turned to the waitress. “Bring us back some water.”

As irked as the waitress seemed, her fear of Hadie seemed to overtake her. She nodded, gave a slight bow of her head, and returned with a pitcher of water and an empty shot glass, which she handed to Kendira.

“Thanks…” Kendira said. She peered into the pitcher and saw broken twigs and leaves floating atop the water. There were even clumps of hair and grimy fingerprints where the water slapped against the sides of the glass. And she was pretty sure that was a spider smashed to the bottom of the pitcher. She counted at least five legs that were still connected to its body.

Hadie sipped her drink. “Bah, you watersacks are all the same. You’ll drink water because you’re made of it, but not blood. The living can be such hypocrites.”

“…Is that what you’re drinking?” Kendira asked. She pushed the pitcher away.

“This?” The creature clacked her fingers against the glass. “This, child, is a Bloody Manny.”

Kendira knew better than to ask what went inside of it. In fact, that sickening knot forming in her stomach told her she already knew…

“Don’t scare the girl,” Luna warned.

“She knows I’m kidding.”

Kendira looked up. “I do?”

“Of course. I wouldn’t drink the blood of a human.”

“Oh… That’s a relief. I thought—”

“It’s just the blood of Men.”

Kendira bit her tongue while Hadie let out a cruel laugh.

“You’re terrible,” Luna said.

“I’m a monster.”

A minute passed and Kendira shifted awkwardly in her seat. She needed something to occupy herself. Luna was lost in her sparkling wine and Hadie was drinking as slowly as she could. With every sip, she would eye Kendira and grin, making the poor child suffer the thought of blood draining down her own throat.

It wasn’t long before Kendira found her hand touching the front of her neck. It looked like she was trying to scratch an itch, but all she really wanted was to undo that knot in her stomach.

“…You should eat,” Luna said at last.

It took a moment for Kendira to realize she was talking to her.

“We won’t be returning to the Tower of Azure for some time.”

“Where will we go?” Kendira asked. She actually had to ask twice because she choked the first time, feeling a sudden bulge in her throat.

“There is more we have to show you.”

Kendira looked down at the slop on her plate. “So this isn’t it…”

“This is only the beginning.”

Hadie smirked while listening to them.

“I don’t know how much more I want to see,” Kendira said softly. “You’re already asking so much of me.”

“I’m asking you to protect those you care the most about.”

“You’re asking me to destroy all that I feel inside.”

Dolefully, Luna set her glass down and traced her finger around its rim. “…Yes. I am.”

“And I know why you brought me here, too.” She turned to Hadie. “You’re not going to let me leave if I don’t go along with your insane plan, are you?”

Hadie’s smirk grew so much that blood began to ooze from the crevices in her jaw.

“It’s not insane,” Luna said. “It’s simple and it’s necessary.”

Kendira shook her head. “I don’t know if I believe you, Master.”

“For your own sake, I think you should.”

“You’d kill me to protect your cause?”

“No. I would never.” Luna took her hand. “…But they would.”

Hadie didn’t even try to hold back her laughter this time. She let out a wicked guffaw and blood squirted from her nose and eyes.

“Kendira, my dear apprentice… I told you once already. I can’t stop them all.”

Kendira nodded, but she was dull and numb. She felt as lifeless as when Hadie had taken over her body.

“I was offered the same choice,” Luna said, squeezing her small fingers. “I chose life because I saw the grim future of our world if we continue along this path. Can humanity survive another war? Can you really condemn so many people to die?”

“Can you!?” Kendira screamed. “Master, look at the scum you’re associating with now.”

There were grunts and hisses in the tavern as the walls suddenly seemed to close in on them.

“So the child shows a backbone after all,” Hadie chuckled. “I am impressed, Luna. Your children are usually so soft, so easy to break.”

Luna reached for her staff with her free hand. “Shut up, worm.” Without taking her eyes off Kendira, she swung the staff towards the mob surrounding her. “And get back—all of you! This is a private conversation.”

“We don’t likes when peoples call us names,” one of the hecklers said.

Another edged closer. “Especially ssscum.”

A flash of red light erupted from the end of Luna’s staff. In an explosion from above, dazzling sparks began to rain down and blind the crowd, filling their senses with fire.

“Back, now—all of you!” she barked.

Howling, the creatures withdrew to a safe distance. But their eyes, now scorched and bloodshot, remained locked on Kendira.

Just like them, she shrunk back, but kept a tight grip on Luna’s hand.

Luna lashed her head towards Hadie. “Keep your filthy minions away from Kendira. She is no enemy of yours or mine.”

Still smiling, Hadie folded her hands around her glass and leaned forward. “Prove it.”

“…Okay, Kendira,” Luna said, relaxing her arm a little. “You—”

Kendira sat up. “No.”

“What?”

“I have nothing to prove,” Kendira said. “If…” She tried to catch her breath. “…If you really think you have a cause worth fighting for…one that justifies the annihilation of an entire race of people…then I think you’re the one with something to prove. And honestly, if you can’t prove every death is necessary to me, then you might as well drop me here…because I will leave and tell the Royal Queen exactly what you’re planning.”

“And what is it that we’re planning, child?” Hadie asked. “What more can you tell her than who is in on this?”

“Well…”

“And even if she could stop us…what then? Would you stand alone in your tower and watch as Sorena destroys your kingdom? Would you be able to life your life knowing that every Woman and child killed in the streets died because of you? I certainly couldn’t live with myself after that…” She grinned. “And I’m already dead.”

Kendira fell silent.

“…And it’s more than that,” Luna said. “Penee’s fate has already been sealed. Even without Sorena, the kingdom would see its own fall before the turn of the century.”

“How do you know?”

“Princess Isabella. She will be the legitimate Queen someday, you know, and she’s made it no secret how she feels about Men.”

“People can change…”

“Yes, they can. But Isabella may be Queen sooner than you think… And a lot sooner than she can have time to mature.”

Kendira thought for a moment. “You said…the Queen went with you to survey the Forsaken lands. How does she feel about this? Is she in on it? …Does she know?”

Luna and Hadie looked at each other.

“Her Royal Highness was a little more…hesitant,” Hadie said, “when I told her what had to be done. She was under the impression that politics and fair play would see this matter through.” She flicked the umbrella from her drink. “Obviously, she knows nothing about the Forsaken. We haven’t lived under rule for five hundred years.”

“Please, eat,” Luna said, pushing Kendira’s plate closer. “You’ll feel better.”

Again, Kendira looked down at the goop. It was brown, full of lumps, and covered in what looked like gravy and grains of rice. The fork she was given looked more edible.

“I somehow doubt that, Master,” she said. But she dug in anyway.

“You’ll grow to like it,” Hadie said, picking up her plate and slurping it clean with her long, snakelike tongue. “Even when you’re dead, you never forget the taste.”

If the knot in Kendira’s stomach ever undid itself, it was back now and twice as tight.

“Eat it all,” Luna said. “You won’t get the chance to eat it again for a while.”

“Or ever again,” her apprentice said, “if I refuse to go along with your plan.”

“I don’t think you will. You’re a compassionate child, but you’re wise, too.” She smiled warmly and reached for a fork. “I know you’ll pick the decision that’s best for our world…and not the one that allows you to sleep easier at night. For that, my child, would be a truly selfish end.”

Kendira nodded and tried to swallow her grub. It almost felt like it was fighting back, but she forced it down and only felt sicker inside.

“What…exactly did you want me to do?” she asked after the silence was beginning to scare her.

“Will you still go running to the Royal Queen?” Hadie sneered.

“…No. I’ll hear you out.”

“Good, good.” The creature laughed and her tongue flickered in the air. “We want—”

Luna finished for her. “We want you to gain influence with the Apostles.”

“The Apostles?” Kendira echoed. “What for?”

“Despite rumors you may have heard of her revival,” Hadie said, “it will take Sorena some time before she has the strength needed to destroy Ellewyn.”

“So war’s not imminent…”

“Not right away. I will do my best to quell her rage, but she hasn’t had to listen to my advice for a long, long time… It’s hard to say if I’ll be able to stop her from wiping Ellewyn off the map.”

Kendira continued to chow down. Somehow, the food had taken a miraculous turn for the better.

“But what’s any of that have to do with the Apostles?” she asked.

“As you’re well aware,” Luna said, “the Apostles and I haven’t seen eye-to-eye in a long time. I don’t expect my position in the Arcane Order to last much longer. Especially after I voice my support for Penee during the council meeting in a few days.”

“And you think I would be better at convincing them to destroy Penee?”

“When the time is right.”

Kendira chewed silently.

“We can do this without you,” Hadie said. “But your ‘Master’ is convinced that it would be good to have someone on the inside. After all… You’re just a child. You have a certain kind of power and innocence that we lost many years ago. Isn’t that right, …Luna?”

“We chose our paths in life,” she answered. “But you, Kendira… You have friends among the Arcane Order, as well as the Apostles. You can be the one to bring balance to this world. You can save us.” She looked into her apprentice’s eyes. “Whether you want to believe it or not, you are the chosen one. That is your path in life.”