Index:
Episode 1 - The League of Iron assembles
Episode 3 - Legacy of the Veil Breakers
Episode 7 - Home is where the hearth is
Episode 8 - Last of the Old Ones
Episode 12 - Mistress of Flesh
Episode 15 - March of the parasites
Episode 16 - Shadows in the Fog
Episode 18 - Kingdom of hunger
Magickal conversation.
Barely two steps between them, the very air around these women was pregnant with scorn manifest. Magicks, both visible and unseen, they crackled and they hissed; arcane fires with deathly will of their own lurked in every single breath of air. Brisé and Flesh Stave shrouded in glowing auras of layer upon layer of polished destruction, indeed, 'twas a sorcerous disagreement of the most intense kind.
“Thy Knight clad in white hast fallen, liebe Hag.” - Queen Astella's voice boomed across the charged with magicks chambers, disturbing many, and dispelling some.
“We had a deal...” - Grumbled the Red Hag, in her stead ruining a number of Astella's enchantments, while birthing a few more to replace those she lost herself.
“Ja, and that deal ist now void.” - The ancient Telvonian fluttered with her Brisé, conjuring a vortex of ball lightning around her voluptuous frame.
Her spittle transforming into reddish fireballs swarming Astella, the Red Hag swiftly followed with one of her mightiest blood curses, to no avail. In a flash, all of the ball lightning and blistering hot fireballs canceled each other with a thunderous chorus of crackling clangs. If the two were mundane mortal sorcerers, they'd be smoldering dust and, shattered bones rolling on the scarred floor.
If one could call the Red Witch's unnaturally prolonged existence real life, then Queen Astella went so far beyond the Veil, that not even goddess Vayila could reach her. The two arcanists were minted together and on the dark side of the same coin. Both stole the lives of others and even though the manner in which they did it differed, they were parasites nonetheless.
The modern one feasted on blood, flesh, and magickal energy, while the ancient survived on a diet of souls and the excruciating torment of others.
“'Twas sealed with a Hag's spittle.” - The Red Hag cackled - “A contract, voluntary agreement of the arcane which bounds us both.”
“Thou assume too much.” - Snarled back the Telvonian queen, and her Brisé created yet another small storm, this time of floating skulls; different in size, sex, and race.
Horrid to behold even for a Flesh Witch, these heads had lost their flesh, yet retained their eyes. Bleeding from their sockets, a hundred pairs of eyes gazed upon the Red Hag and theirs were the looks of those who'd suffered terrors which neither the Overlord, nor she could fathom.
“I did everything I could and even sacrificed two of my witches! Honor thy part or dare a single dhampiir, no matter how olden, go against a castle full of Flesh Witches?”
The Red Hag uttered this warning and with a great degree of calm, despite the storm of magicks which was slowly ruining her prized summoning ring. As a matter of fact, her entire and quite lavish by Thulm standards quarters was in the process of being tarnished.
“If I wisheth, there'd be no glittering Schloss with bejeweled corpse-walls...” - Astella chuckled, a light-reflecting beam flying out of her left eye turned part of the outer wall into dust before she completed her snide declaration - “and NO city either.”
“I earned my information, for which I paid most dearly.” - The Red Hag stomped with her Flesh Stave, and even though more of her magicks than Astella's were extinguished, she spoke with steely confidence.
“Ja, and I want my pay.”
Angry witch's magicks clashed with a hundred strong army of floating skulls and the latter won. These bleeding bones did not leave a single trace made of blood on the witch's elaborate carpet. Instead, whenever a droplet touched the floor, it immediately transmogrified into a tiny mirror shard.
“What do you want?” - Hissed the Red Hag, who, even though barely tired from flinging all of these prepared in advance magicks, became aware that victory against Astella would be if not impossible, at the very least an incredibly costly affair.
As if capable of reading thoughts just by looking at her face, the olden dhampiir snatched a polished cup from the ruined table. The same which her host had promised to her during their first meeting, Astella playfully tapped the goblet's untarnished surface, not a single bit of her own visage being reflected in it. She proceeded to stash the cup in a lavishly embroidered, ceremonial goblet holder. This traditional for Telvonian noblesse ball accessory dangled from Astella's impossibly thin waist, tied to her gown's belt.
Following a long and most brutal snicker, the Telvonian queen pointed the tip of her Brisé at the Red Hag's belly.
“Hag, I see thou hast birthed thy wimpy spawn into this world.” - Astella said as she canted her head in a manner most nonchalant - “Then, instead of taking thy squealing hagspawn, I shalt be merciful and require something else.”
“How dare yee, dhampiir! None would suffer to steal a single Thulm child, let alone touch a Flesh Witch's babe! Hath my Lord hear of thy insole...”
“He'd most probably agree.” - Smirked the ancient Telvonian, and extinguished nearly all of the Red Hag's remaining incantations.
“This bit of decaying knowledge will cost thee... a cadaver. I'll have the Ritter of white who failed to slay mein Neldaeir pest; shattered armor, Langschwert and all. 'Tis a rather fitting exchange, wouldn't you say?”
“You want his... sword?!” - Confused, mumbled the Red Hag.
However, the revelation that she didn't have to lay prostrate before her Lord in failure, or throw away the lives of her witches was quite reposeful.
“Thy little witches hath recovered it, ja?”
“Sure, take the corpse! Have his blade, have his socks even! Why do I care?” - Snarled the hag, and stomped the completely destroyed carpet with her Flesh Stave - “Now, giveth what we bargained for.”
“Nein,” - Astella waggled her finger in the air, and floated over the floor reaching the Wall-Gate which led straight to the castle's Flesh Repository - “not before I have my pay.”
Fumes and crimson flames bellowed from the Red Hag's nose as she gritted her teeth.
“Anything else you need from my chamber, dhampiir? Thou shan't return here, ever again.” - Hissed the Hag, and pointed at the goblet which Astella rested her free hand in, in an openly pompous manner.
“Why, my liebe Hag, thy goblet was merely a souvenir! Thou can't possibly assume ich would suffer bonds of mortal or Hag craft?” - Chuckled she with a playful grin, and only now did the Red Hag peak inside Astella's mouth.
'Twas a swarm of tiny faces, each impossibly writhed and all wailing in silent horror. What was worse, the very second her eye laid upon this terror sight, the witch felt her own spirit shudder. Shaken, the Red Hag wasted no more breath or word, for she had decided to get all of this over with and the sooner the better.
With a single wave of her Flesh Stave, the Gate-Wall became open and ready to enable their near instantaneous movement. Astella, however, took a few breaths of tortured air and, before stepping through the warp in space, hummed:
“Cometh, oh cometh meine Kinder!”
In a flash, every single shard of mirror liquefied and obediently flowed towards her. Just as the dhampiir entered the Gate-Wall, this brilliant stream of glass became one with her ancient gown. The lost beings who lingered, lost between dimensions, they witnessed a thing of pure terror when Astella strode through this null space.
A choir of thousands tortured voices, begging for the sweet release that would never come...
***
Dear reader, if you liked this story, you might enjoy my published work.
The stuff of Nightmares!!