The Battle Majestic (Round 4 - Magpie Skies)

SpoilerShow

This post is a Ix and Schaz co-production.

“Attention citizens of the Skies. With the tragic fall of Six For Gold and the triumphant defeat of the Moonlight Queen by my very hands, it is time that I, your much beloved Duke of Desire, claim my birthright. From now onward you may refer to me as your Red King and I promise you that I will be taking these skies in a new and exciting direction. No more fear, no more cowering, now only blissful obedience to your most handsome and benevolent of monarchs. So if you can hear this message, I invite you to, no I command you to join me at Desire Manor for my coronation and don’t forget to bring appropriate tribute.”

—-

The Duke of Desire had quickly tired of circling the skies, hoping that his very presence would act as a magnet for the last remaining bravest souls in the sky. The message had been Razz’s idea to bring those final flies in the ointment to him, and right now it was being relayed throughout the sky kingdoms by his blank faced thugs elite royal guard.

Very little had to be done to prepare the Duke’s ballroom for an impromptu coronation. All of his limousines were at this moment either out spreading the news or sequestered to the garage in the back, and the same was true of his flying creatures only removed to the stables instead.

He already had a throne; carved of marble and inlaid with precious gems pertaining to each of the skies colours, at the foot of the chair intricate carvings of his own image, and in the centre his stylized D. Beside the throne, once hidden off in a private room now out in the open for all to see was the fabled sword something-or-other and the stone it was entombed within.

Seated in an enormous semi-circle in front of the throne were various sky-folk. Bruno the blue bartender was there with all the regulars at his tavern (including the old mystic who had made cryptic gasps at the sight of the sword in the stone). A couple of stray numbered knights (Eighty Two and Ninety Nine) who had been away from Six For Gold performing various errands before this whole business had even started. Various carpeteers of various colours. Sky-boatmen. Cloud-shapers. Purple artists in various throes of melodramatics. Green gardeners shifting impatiently in their seats. The four remaining orange alchemicians twitchy and nervous. White stoics as still as statues. Blue enchanters constantly being shushed by the Duke’s thugs.

And in the front row transferred from one prison to another were the various coloured queens, complaining about this rough treatment and whispering to each other like ‘Well at least when we were Midnight’s prisoners we had a whole room to ourselves.’ ‘She knew how to treat a prisoner.’

On stage, in front of the throne stood the Duke and his assistant Razzmatazz, but they weren’t addressing the crowd. They were whispering to each other. “The Moonlight Queen is dead. And even if you count her risen corpse as alive it was grounded.” Razz nodded along as if checking off items in a mental checklist. “Six For Gold is down. As are all of the interlopers. Who in the world are we missing?!”

“Yah don’t fink the rumours abou’-” Razz began. The Duke shook his head and turned to his captive audience.

“Ladies and gents. I apologize for the delay, but someone out there is still holding out hope of bringing an end to our delightful little ceremony.” The Duke swept a hand across the room indicating the captive guests. “I hope none of you are feeling particularly brave tonight.”

The crowd murmured and whispered in their seats, glancing around at each other.

“You’ll never get away with this.” Ninety Nine stood up in their seat. “Once Six For Gold is airborne again they’re going to teach you a lesson.”

The Duke frowned and gave a single nod. In a single motion the henchman standing the closest to Ninety Nine dragged them out of their seat and wrestled them to the ground and pinned them there. Another one of the duke’s thugs pulled off the knight’s helmet and tossed it to one side, underneath Ninety Nine was just a kid, with golden skin and amber coloured hair. They barely had time to react before the second thug had drawn a knife and in one swift motion slit their throat. Pale yellow blood spilled out as the kid’s life drained away.

The crowd screamed, flinched away at the very least and outright had to be forced back into their seats at the most. “You monster.” Jonquil, the yellow queen was sobbing, the other queens trying their best to console her.

“And now, finally. I, the Duke of Desire, am the bravest living soul in these skies.” The Duke stepped over to the sword, gripped it with both hands and pulled. And it didn’t move. He screamed in frustration and kicked the stone over. “Who is it?!” he demanded. “Who still has the delusion of hope that they could even dream to tarnish my perfection?”

The main doors opened. A pair of henchmen and between them an unremarkable blue carpeteer swaddled with cloth so thoroughly that not even a hint of their skin was visible.

“Caught this one trying to sneak in the back.” One of the henchmen called up. The Duke looked over, for a moment reinvigorated by the thought that maybe this was them and then saw it was just a carpeteer.

“Oh.” he said with disappointment. “We don’t even have space for them any more. If we move anyone around its going to mess with the seating plan. No that won’t do at all. Just kill them they’re not worth the trouble.”

The henchmen drew their weapons, ready to carry out their orders, as the cloth wrappings of the carpeteer exploded outwards, unwrapping from their wearer as though alive and angry. The wrappings slammed into the henchmen, catching them off guard and flinging them into the nearby walls with a loud crack. The henchmen dissipating into a fine red-pink coloured mist as they impacted against the walls.

The carpeteers robes fell away to reveal the stunning magenta skin beneath, the shaved short phlox hair. The hatred in the lost pink queen’s eyes. The crowd gasped.

“Desire” no wait. She cleared her throat and tried again. “Desire, you overreach yourself.”

“Acridone?” The Duke gaped at her. “Do my eyes deceive me? I thought, we all thought for sure the Moonlight Queen must have wrung you so dry of magic that there was nothing left but a shrivelled up husk. You never were a real queen after all. Just a distant cousin of Ruby’s, given a patch of the sky as a kindness.”

“You dare hold this sham of a coronation and then say I’m not a ‘real queen’?” Acridone said incredulously. “You can’t be serious Desire.”

“Wrong!” The Duke spat back. “I am serious! I have a direct line to the throne! I was Ruby’s nephew! I was fourth in line, Acridone! And now they’re all dead and I’m still here. This is my right! I deserve this. I’ve earned this. And I’m not letting you tell me otherwise.”

“I’ve been hiding a long time, but today I saw some old friends standing up for what they believed in and winning a fight I would have said was impossible.” Acridone said. “If they can kill Midnight, I can obliterate you and your army of dolls.”

“I killed Midnight!” The Duke looked nervous. “I slayed the foul dragon queen who held our skies hostage for so long. It was me! I deserve the glory and the adulation! Enough of this. Kill her!”

As one the Duke’s henchmen started to swarm towards Acridone. She fought back, using her enchanted wrappings as extensions of herself. They weren’t particularly heavy but these henchmen had been baked in a hurry and for some of them one strong blow was enough to reduce them to dust.

In the crowd numbered knight Eighty Two got to their feet and started trying to fight back against the nearby thugs, using the weight of their heavy armour to body slam them into one another. Bruno and his regulars cheered boisterously and started a fistfight with the closest thugs. Amongst the crowd, other pockets of resistance rose up buoyed by Acridone’s example.

Acridone was holding her own remarkably well, until the doors opened behind her and more of the Duke’s goons poured in, now having her surrounded on both sides. One of them pinned her arms behind her as one with an axe approached from the front. She swept out with her leg, her wraps arcing out like an extension of her body, knocking down the approaching thug and a couple of his pals, and then, given a moment to breathe she brought her wraps around behind her, gripping the head of the thug holding her back and wrenched it up and back until it disconnected and their body just dissipated.

Acridone glanced around her. Despite the number of henchmen she’d dispatched so far, it didn’t really seem as though she’d gained any ground, and so quickly reassessed. Her eyes alighted on something, and she smiled. She gathered her wraps around her hands, held them straight up and pulled, relying on the same kind of magic that had powered her carpets to lift her aloft and over the heads of the crowd and quickly towards the throne.

The Duke stumbled back as he saw her approaching. “Stay back!” he commanded. “I did not give you permission to approach my royal personage!” His henchmen hurried to try and change direction, to hurry up to the stage and intercept her, but the resistance from the crowd slowed the process.

Acridone touched down on the stage and had a moment to look around. The Duke was backing away, Razz was still by the throne, silent since Acridone had arrived and looking sheepish. “Oh Razz. How did you ever end up bound to this fool?” she said softly. But there was little time for sentiment.

Queen Acridone reached out, took the handle with both hands and pulled, and the sword emerged. A brilliant pure white blade that shone in her hands; Seven For A Secret. For a moment she was awed to be holding this legendary weapon in her own hands. She turned to face the Duke and then there was a deafening crack that echoed through the hall.

Acridone looked down, a distant pain in her chest. Coral pink blood seeping through her wrappings. She looked up, towards the Duke. He was standing with a golden contraption in his hands. Some kind of mechanism made of the same stuff as Jonquil’s palace. A tiny amount of golden smoke drifted from the end of a short tube. In her hands the light of the sword dimmed somewhat. Never To Be Told

No more than a second or two after the crack of the Duke’s pistol she collapsed and the sword skittered to a halt by his feet. As he reached down and picked it up he felt the power still remaining in it. Not as much as it would have been if he’d plucked it for himself, but more than enough to keep this kingdom in line.

The crowd had frozen in their various acts of rebellion at the sound of the gunshot, though none of them knew this term or the meaning of it. They quickly learned as with Acridone’s death their rebelliousness seemed to fade away, replaced with an icy acceptance. The queens wept for their fallen sister. Razz hung her head in shame.

“You all saw it!” The Duke commanded. “I, the Duke, no, the King of Desire, plucked this legendary weapon from its stone.” This was met with murmurs of impotent outrage from his captive audience.

“Everyone’s in agreement now, right?” He called gleefully. “Are there any other long lost monarchs or ancient heroes who’d like to show up and dispute my claim now? No? I didn’t think so.” The crowd fell to dejected silence.

“Now as your Red King my first act is to address these awful claims that I wasn’t the one to slay the Moonlight Queen. We’ve all heard these reprehensible rumours, these slanders on my good person.” The Duke paraded on the stage, swinging his blade as ominous punctuation to his lies. “Well I’m going to go and speak to the fraud who claims my accomplishments for her own, and I’m going to bring back her head so that everyone knows who the rightful monarch of the Skies is, for now and forever.”

—-

"Look, so, that's a notorious interstellar criminal-"

"-who will drop to second on my personal hit list,” yelled Jacob as he dashed forward, “-if you’re going to stand around talking!."

"FfffffViiiine". The Tender made a dismissive, twirly kind of gesture, and almost fell over as the ground beneath the Gentleman burst with thin spiny branches. Talis, impaled, spluttered. "Ew," said Sen, before a squawk of outrage when Talis' fell at Jacob's feet. Whatever fluids were circulating through his physical form had reduced the branches to ash.

Jacob glared at Sen. With a roll of the eyes that needed no sclera to broadcast it, the fruit trotted forward, kicked Talis back to the base of the tree, and laid a foot against the not-bark. Talis glared up as the branches began to wrap about him.

"You've some verve, I'll grant you that," said Talis, voice low. "There aren't many who have a battle to the death pass through their world and go, 'mmm, yes, that seems like quite a blast.'" An irritated little crest-flick. "One does wonder, though, what would your new travelling companions think? Knowing they never got a choice-"

"Ok all done!!!!" Jacob looked between the grinning Sen, the Gentleman with a vine crammed down his throat, and must've decided he'd rather be dealing with anything else, for he asked:

"Wait. Where'd the other one go?"

---

Under a sprawling Chestnut beast, the Violet monarch stands-

-but she is not alone. The being before her, contrary to his suit's fetching shade of aubergine, was far from a man she could trust.

And Sruix, mere shade of a god is he, stares resign'ed at her hands

He sighs. After his stunt with Sen's moss puppet, and using much of his own energy he'd foolishly poured into the gloves just to counteract Talis' in that brief and blinding struggle, what little remained of his cosmic power was...

Where the gloves of her friend have staked their claim, as strong as iron bands.

"I'm afraid, Violet, that the time has come for you to make a choice."

"I won't let you take them from me."

"And I've no intention of trying to take them from you," said Sruix. He removed one of his own gloves with a wince - the one with which he’d grabbed Talis and ripped away the ownership of Steven’s gloves - to reveal still-sparking, crackling burns. "However. I've almost stemmed my essence's bleeding, which means Talis will have too. Let me give the gloves back to him before he-"

"Absolutely not."

"You misunderstand, Violet." The colorless light - Sruix's one visible eye behind the veil of hair - dimmed. "Once he's got the gloves and, I don't know, Jacob, I suppose, kills him, once and for all-" An angry squawk from the others’ direction. The Gentleman shuddered, though more from fatigue than distaste. "-or your Red friend moonlighting as the Yggdrasilus - he’ll be a contestant. And you, you’ve killed Midnight. Your world will be safe at last, once you're rid of us.”

Violet whirled about, squinting through the beardy veil of the princess-beast the two of them had hidden themselves behind. Sen had kicked Talis to the base of its World Tree. Scarlet, perched atop the Tender’s head, was clearly moving to restrain him, but things looked tense.

“Nobody needs to die right now,” declared Violet, pushing aside the curtain of fur. “He’s not a threat anymore, unless you try betraying us all again.”

“No, I’m quite done with his schemes, thank you. All I can hope for now, I suppose, is for you and her Rouge Highness to accept the terrible implications of the powers you’ve both seized, and raise hell for the Executrix and her ilk.” With a hand gesture aborted by his burns, Sruix stepped out of immediate existence with a “Now, if you’ll excuse me.”

Violet frowned, then saw Eryntse dashing into Jacob and Sen’s discussion with a wail of protest and a flurry of organza. Violet sorely doubted, if the two contestants with the most ridiculous powers between them made up their minds, that Eryntse could stop them from killing Talis. She sighed, and moved to join them, muttering:

“...I’m not promising you anything.”


—

“What is that?” Blitz wondered aloud. He’d been all but silent in the discussion so far, having his own internal argument against his father who had been trying to talk him into just killing the bastard and getting it over with. He was now standing, staring up into the evening sky.

Jacob was the first one to follow Blitz’s gaze. While Eryntse cried and continued to drape herself all over her new best friend Violet (designated as such for marching in and telling Sen and Jacob, in no uncertain terms, that nobody was stooping to Talis’ level and executing innocent people), Jacob looked up, past the nearby village to see a series of rectangular shadows hanging in the sky.

“Nothing good.” He answered, rhetorically. “And just when I thought we might get to have some downtime in this thing.” Violet and Scarlet promptly took the cue and-

“Oh no.” Violet sighed.

“What’s wrong best friend?” Eryntse asked, relishing the opportunity to call her as such. “Do you need a backrub? I’m really good at backrubs and all kinds of massages. I’ve never had a-”

“It’s Desire.” Scarlet’s head whipped around the name, but she said nothing.

“Desire?” Jacob prompted.

“He’s Sc-” Violet started and then saw the look Scarlet was giving her and she cut herself off. “He’s the nephew of the Red Queen and he’s grown up rancid. Spends all his time making unsightly mechanical flying machines, and caging innocent creatures for his menagerie. Doesn’t share well. I’d say he’s developed a monstrous ego, but it’d be kind of downplaying it.” Violet said. “Whatever he wants I doubt it’s good.”

In the distance the shapes were definitely getting bigger, and the ones at the front were starting to lower towards the village.

“We need to go.” Violet said. “There’s no telling what he’ll do to ‘disrespectful’ surface dwellers.”

“But your massage…” Eryntse protested.

“I’ll have it when I get back, promise.” Violet said, attempting to prise herself loose from Eryntse’s grip, Steven’s gloves, her gloves, redoubling her efforts. After a moment she was able to slip loose. Violet took a hurried step in the direction of the village primarily to get out of Eryntse’s immediate cuddle range.

Scarlet was next to her in a moment. “Sure does sound like a real piece of work. I’d love to lend a… um…” Scarlet looked down at her feet, “a foot I guess. And probably a job for just us two I’d expect.”

Jacob frowned. “If you think you can handle it then I’d rather not leave Talis alone-”

Talis chose this moment to spit out the vine which had intruded into his throat. “Ugh. You’re hilarious. I’m all tied up, I’m almost completely out of juice (thanks S) and yet you still act as though I’m some gargantuan threat just waiting for you to let your guards down. It is adorable.”

“Yeah, I am.” Jacob shook his head.

Eryntse could only wring her hands that her best friend had deserted her. Blitz, curiosity seemingly sated, just shrugged.

“Okay great.” Scarlet tried gagging Talis again, but from this distance really only succeeded in slapping him clumsily in the face without another vine. She called back as she and Violet started to hurry towards the village. “Catch you later so long as this fucker doesn’t kill you in the meantime.”

—

“Attention pathetic denizens of the surface.” The Duke of Desire’s voice echoed out from the limousines hovering low over the village. “I believe you are harbouring a fugitive, a criminal against the rightful King of the Skies. Surrender the Purple Queen or else I will be forced to take drastic measures.”

“Oh you weren’t kidding.” Scarlet said, running full pelt across the fields to the village. “He’s really lost it huh?”

Violet clung to Scarlet’s back, her now quite tattered gown billowing out behind her in the wind. “He even worse than when I last saw him.” She admitted.

They reached the village as faceless humanoid shapes in matching red uniforms began to descend from the limousines. The village was in chaos. Some residents had snatched up weapons and were lining the streets ready to fight, while others were running for shelter, getting their families into their simple stone buildings and barricading the doors and windows shut.

As The Duke of Desire’s henchmen landed immediately the villagers began to defend themselves, getting free hits in on the dolls while they righted themselves and drew their own weapons. They weren’t as half-formed as the ones at the coronation had been and could take a couple of really good hits before disintegrating, but it seemed as though there was always another ready to take their place.

“Desire!” Violet bellowed out, still on the back of Scarlet as they pounded through the streets to get to the communal square at the heart of the village. “This is Violet. I am showing myself to you. Stop this pointless fighting, come down here and let’s discuss what this is about.”

“Get down here you fucker!” Scarlet called out. “You’ve got a lot to answer for, ruining the good name of red royals! I just think it sucks as an unaffiliated third party observer!”

They dodged and ducked through the combat, leaping over one particularly aggressive henchman trying to charge them with a spear. Within a minute they found themselves at the open village square, the Duke’s personal limousine grounded and parked at the centre. He stood out in front of it, his assistant meekly off to one side. His hand was gripped tightly around the handle of a faintly glowing white sword. Even from here Scarlet and Violet could feel the thrum of its energy in the air as he swished it back and forth impatiently.

“I’m here Desire. Call off the attack and let’s talk.”

The Duke of Desire glanced up at Violet, his eyes skimmed over Scarlet, dismissing her as some kind of weird land-horse. “You!” He spat. “Killing Midnight was supposed to be my triumph. The act that would make all the skies finally love and appreciate me. You had years cozied up with her in that palace, and nothing! But no, right on the eve of my Big Moment that’s when you choose to act. I demand my birthright!”

“What the fuck do you mean, your birthright?” Scarlet cut in. “Your right to make yourself feel big and powerful? Your right to hurt these innocent people for kicks? Being a king or a queen means serving your people, providing for them, fighting for them… when you can, when there’s a hope in hell of winning. You don’t know the first damn thing about being a king.” A pause and then in a noticeably less emotional tone “...at least that’s what I think I would do, if I were a queen.”

Desire was gaping at her. “Aunt Ruby?” Between reds their object forms were as distinctive and recognizable as their humanoid forms. Desire probably would have noticed her sooner had he not been in the middle of a tantrum.

“Nuh-uh. I’m just a weird fruit in a cool hat.”

He pressed his free hand to his temple and groaned. “God, you’re all coming out of the woodwork tonight. First the Pink queen, now you. Is Turquoise going to show up next and complete our little rainbow?”

“Acri?” Scarlet asked. “She’s alive?”

“Not any more she isn’t.” Desire grinned. Scarlet tensed up, her borrowed body primed like a coiled spring aching to explode into action, and then she shook it off.

“That… really sucks for the people who knew her huh.”

As Scarlet and Desire had argued, Violet had been noticing his homunculi beginning to congregate around the edge of the square and was starting to feel a little nervous. “What is it that you actually want from me?” she interrupted.

Desire snapped his gaze up to Violet. “A duel.” He said. “One on one, no outside interference. When I win you relinquish your throne to me, and your claim to having killed Midnight.”

“And when I win you leave the people of this village alone.” Violet said, “And you fuck off back to the skies, back to your mansion and you stay there. The skies have gone through enough without some opportunistic egomaniac trying to take advantage of everyone’s misfortune.”

“Done.” He said, “Now get down here and face me.” The would-be king paced back and forth, rolling his shoulders and cricking his neck. Scarlet muttered to herself as Violet dismounted.

“If you’re hoping for me to hold myself back you better do the same.” Scarlet said. “None of Razz’s dolls. Just you and Vi.”

“Yes, yes, whatever.” The Duke snapped. “Can we get on with it, this dirty little town is making me itch.”

Violet reached out with one hand, her gloves mirroring her movements, and produced a purple sabre, much like the one that Stephen had conjured into existence for her some hours previously. Despite her lack of practice, there was something in the act that felt familiar, the gloves guiding her hands perhaps. She took the sabre in her hand, and marched up to the Duke.

“Give him hell Vi.” Scarlet called encouragingly.

Violet and Desire sized each other up. Standing so close Violet could feel the power emanating from the blade. It was like standing close to a roaring fire. She didn’t know how Desire was tolerating holding the damn thing. Finally, he made the first move, brought the sword around in a quick flick. Violet brought her own blade up to block it and as it impacted the force of the blow reverberated through her. It stunned her, any opening she might have seized upon slipped through her fingers as she processed the force of such an offhand blow.

The Duke swung again, more power behind it this time, Violet focused herself in time to block and brace for impact. She skidded back in the dirt almost stumbling over backwards and only just righting herself. If she survived this she was going to need to get more practical shoes, a more practical outfit overall really.

Scarlet was jeering and booing and Desire scowled and glanced in her direction. Violet seized the opportunity, brought her blade around and almost caught him, just bringing Seven For A Secret up to block just in time. Once again Violet found herself pressed backwards, her own momentum somehow negated by the blade and forced back against her. It caught her off guard and this time she did fall. Her blade bounced off across the stone floor and Desire sauntered closer to her, so he was standing above her with that cocky grin on his face.

“This is the part where you beg for your life.” Violet glanced to the side to see Scarlet suddenly half submerged beneath homunculi, attempting to fight her way free and then back up to Desire and that insufferable sneer.

“Okay. You see there is one thing I can give you that you can’t take for yourself.” She said. “These gloves.” She demonstrated with a wave, which the left glove copied. They’re some kind of powerful artefact from beyond our world, and even on top of that two really powerful guys also from another world poured most of their energies into them.”

“I’m hoping for your sake they can do more than just float and wave.” Desire said. “Wait-” he turned to look in the direction that Violet’s blade had flew away in only to be stopped by the press of a blade in the small of his back.

“Oh yeah, all kinds of stuff.” Violet said with a grin. “But sometimes simple is all you need. Surrender?” The Duke scowled and said nothing for a good half a minute.

In the chaos of bodies Sen was fighting back, making full use of his body, his powerful legs and tail to knock down or kick away any of the clinging homunculi. Scarlet’s hat had been knocked off at one point but she’d quickly found a body of one of the Duke’s thugs to possess and was slicing her way through the crowd with a katana. Merlot had come out of balloon form and was leaping across the heads of the thugs, and then slamming them down with her full body weight before returning to balloon form to regain some altitude.

Violet pressed the blade a little harder against the Duke’s back just as a reminder. “Okay fine.” He said. “I give in. You get everything you ever wanted as usual and I have to be the bad guy about it.”

Violet pushed herself to her feet. “What the fuck are you talking about. We don’t have a rivalry. Just… Just fucking call them off.” she said turning to look at Scarlet, who had returned to Sen’s body and was trying to work out how to operate a katana in this shape. When she turned back the Duke had slipped out of danger and was attempting to wrestle her purple blade from the glove that held it, whilst also refusing to let go of Seven For A Secret in his other hand. “Oh this is pathetic.”

She watched for a second, waited for her moment and then snapped the fingers of her left glove, unmaking the sword, knocking the Duke off balance and allowing her to pull Seven For A Secret out of his grasp before he could fully process what just happened. “Now will you surrender?” In her hands the intense heat of the blade felt more like energy running through her body. She held the blade out before her and felt powerful, assured, invincible.

“Of course.” Desire lied. “And this time I really mean it. I’d even drop my sword if I still had one.”

Before Violet could react there were rough hands behind her grabbing her free hand. She swung around, slicing through a couple of the Duke’s thugs like they were completely insubstantial, their bodies misting away before her. “Get off me.” she cried out. She couldn’t quite reach the one behind her, trying to twist her arm, but she had enough reach with her other arm to force any thugs trying to advance on her to a safe distance.

She might have rallied, used her gloves to summon new weapons or at least deal with the bastard she couldn’t reach, but before any of that could occur to her the homunculus holding her back dragged her down to the floor and in doing so knocked Seven For A Secret out of her hand. It hit the ground with a disproportionately loud thud. Violet twisted herself loose from the Duke’s minion and tried to crawl toward the blade, but within moments the Duke had hurried over and grabbed it from where it lay.

“The critical error you made,” he began, seemingly physically incapable of not giving a smug victory speech, “was that you thought you were duelling, and not fighting for your life. Also that you got in my way. That’s another fairly important one.” He stood over her, Seven For A Secret pressed against her back, burning a hole through her dress. “And now you pay for it.”

—

Talis stood, his back to Sen’s beanstalk, his hands bound together with thick tight vines. Eryntse, having been deprived of her new best friend, had opted to cling to him instead. It was intolerable. Meanwhile Jacob was sat on a fallen log nearby, fiddling with his watch and occasionally glancing up at him, or over at the village where the shapes still hung ominously. Blitz was pacing and muttering to himself a little further off, just out of sight but not out of earshot.

Talis didn’t have enough energy or a viable stratagem left to save himself, he just had how long he could continue to evade the inevitable. He’d almost rather be dead already, he’d almost cast a vote for his immediate execution in the midst of their argument just to be done with it. Almost but not quite. While he still lived perhaps there was still some faint hope to cling to.

“You should have seen the conditions that they had me in in that dungeon.” Eryntse had taken the opportunity of a captive audience to recount her recent adventures to. “It was sooooo gross. Not nice. Maybe it’s just me, but me, I think if you’re going to put someone in a dungeon, it should at least be a nice clean dungeon and better yet why not befriend them and then you could sit and cuddle and watch the sunset together and-”

“You know,” Talis said, keeping his voice to barely above a whisper, “S and I selected this round. If I really thought about it I could probably hazard a guess as to what Desire is doing down here on the surface.”

“Hmm? Desire? Who’s that?” Earlier, when the topic had come up, Eryntse had been more focused on cuddling, and talking Jacob out of hurting her friend to really pay attention to what Violet had been saying. Something about some guy, who cares? He wasn’t here. He was off somewhere else doing shitty bad stuff. “Aaaaanywaaaaaaaay, these knights, all of them, with their silly numbered names. How am I supposed to remember a name if it’s just a number? Oh! We should go see them again once the girls are back from their thing, I’ve been thinking, they could all have nice new names, like Victrola and Schoolbus and Fandango and-”

Jacob glanced around at the sound of her voice and so Talis allowed Eryntse to talk for a minute or two before continuing his muffled gambit. “Desire is the potentially very dangerous asshole your best friend went off to fight.”

”-and Lemon Chiffon and wait you mean Violet’s in danger!?” Eryntse cried out in alarm. “Jacob! Violet might be in danger! We need to help her!”

Jacob turned his attention back to Talis with a weary exasperation. “Talis is lying to you. He wants to be left alone to escape and he’ll say anything to make it happen.”

“I wouldn’t lie about this. Not when Eryntse’s best friend’s life might be on the line,” Talis said, just about able to suppress the faint hints of a smile.

““Jacooooooob! We have to do something, and by we I mean you please because I’m worried but I don’t want to go and fight a bad man. Please? Um, unless maybe he could be a new friend?”

“Oh goodness no, not this guy.” Talis interjected.

“Oh no no no no! Jacob, you’ve gotta go and help her.” Eryntse bellowed, her eyes watering. She wrapped her arms (a normal number of them) around Talis, sublimating her desire to rescue Violet into the more readily available action of giving an enormous hug to whatever was nearest to her.

Jacob wasn’t happy about this. Probably ought to have gagged Talis again, but too late to consider that now. The truth was he wasn’t unworried about Violet and Sen. Just because something didn’t seem like it was going to be a threat didn’t mean it was harmless. But at the same time Talis couldn’t be left unsupervised. He glanced over at Blitz.

“Blitz.” He called. “Think you can keep watch on this bastard while I check everything’s okay?”

Blitz muttered to himself for a couple of seconds and then nodded. “Yeah, I can do it.” He said weakly.

Not really doing a lot to inspire confidence, but Jacob reasoned, he wouldn’t be gone very long. In all probability this was just a bluff from Talis. He’d confirm and then return here, no harm done. “I’ll be back as soon as possible. Kill him if you have to.”

As Jacob incrementally teleported away, Blitz clenched his fists and muttered to himself. “Shut up! I’m not killing anyone.”

—

The crowd of the Duke’s thugs was beginning to ebb. No more were descending from the limousines above. There were still some fighting with villagers, essentially only biding time, keeping them from swarming the main village square. This isn’t to say that there weren’t many left. There was still more than enough to hamper Scarlet’s movement, and of course to hold Violet down as the Duke gloated over her, with some left over that were hauling on Violet’s gloves, trying to pull them back away from the Duke.

Suddenly there was a hole in reality in the middle of the square, a rough circle hanging in mid air containing on the other side an infinite emptiness, difficult to look at and even more difficult to tear your eyes away from. The silence coming from it seemed to blot out all the noise of combat and the cries of confusion and alarm. The Duke couldn’t help but stumble away from the portal, his coup de grace on Violet forgotten for a moment, and even the numerous dolls were momentarily stunned. Jacob blinked into existence at the edge of the square, stopped in his tracks by whatever the fuck was going on here.

Violet had been desperate, and in her mind she’d flashed back to Talis, in the middle of his scheme to steal Steven’s gloves, telling him that these things could open a portal, and just how dangerous it was to open a portal without knowing where you are aiming. She couldn’t have called the words Timeless Interstice to mind or know exactly what they meant if she could but that was what she was seeing through the hole she’d cut into the world. It was a gamble, but maybe it would be worth it.

Violet kicked her way out of the grasp of the Duke’s thugs and hurriedly clambered up onto her feet. In the brief moment she had before everyone tore their attention away from the hole in the universe she’d torn, she braced herself and charged the Duke. She caught him off guard, pulling him with her as she charged forwards and then shoved him into the endless inhospitable nothing of the Interstice.

As he fell into the void, the Duke screamed and swore of course, but all that was drowned out by the nothingness leaking into the world. His body was shutting down, it wasn’t true to say that absolutely nothing could survive in the emptiness of the Interstice, but he definitely wasn’t equipped for that. He gripped Seven For A Secret tight against his chest as though it might save him somehow, and then he didn’t move again.

Violet didn’t see any of this, she was struggling to pull back, away from the gaping maw into oblivion. The pull of the portal was strong and it was taking everything she had just to remain stationary. With a click of the fingers of her left glove the portal collapsed and she slumped to the floor.

The late Duke’s dolls for a moment looked a little dazed and confused, and then collapsed to the ground, almost in unison, their bodies fading and leaving only piles of clothing where they had been. Scarlet shook off the remnants of the dolls and bounded over to Violet. Jacob also approached though his was more a cautious stroll, picking through the remnants of the Duke’s thugs as though they might spring to life again.

“What the fuck was that Vi?” Scarlet asked. “That was badass. You never told me you could do that.”

Violet climbed to her feet again, looking and feeling exhausted. “The gloves.” she said, as though that explained everything.

Jacob walked past the pair to the spot where the portal had been and examined it. There was still a hole there, tiny, not quite a full centimetre in diameter, but noticeable if you were looking for it. “Could someone pass me one of those suits.” He asked. Scarlet and Violet walked over, and Razzmatazz a little sheepishly made an approach as well. “Hold up.” Jacob said as she approached the tiny hole. “Just want to confirm something real quick.”

One of Violet’s gloves passed Jacob one of the many discarded red suits. Jacob took it, balled it up and swung it through the air before him. Where it intersected with the hole it was perfectly cut, or not even cut so much just as if that part of the suit had never existed. “Yeah that’s pretty bad.” Jacob said. “Nobody touch that thing. I’m going to go and find Kollskeg, he should be told we just tore a hole in reality in the middle of his village.”

“Hi Razz.” Scarlet said. “Sorry about your boss, I guess.”

“Don’t yah worry none.” Razz said, dismissively. “Yah’ve done me a fayvah if anythin’”

“Sorry you were bound to him for so long.” Violet said.

“Yea that’s the fing ain’t it?” Razz cricked her head. “I used ta believe in that scumbag once. Time was he actually had charisma. An’ I thought, wow this guy could be goin’ somewhere. But instead we sat in his lousy mansion for years and years, pickin’ on those already scared outta their wits by the Grey Queen. We was nothin’ but bullies, an’ there wasn’t anythin’ I could do to back outta it.” She spat in the general direction of the hole. “This fuckah had that sword for I don’t even know how long, and he did nothin’. Never been a more deservin’ asshole to get flung intah the fuckin’ death zone.”

Violet smirked. “You thinking of taking his place?”

“Nah fuck that.” Razz said. “I ain’t nevah been a leadah, not about tah start now. I was wonderin’ if eithah of yah needed an assistant?” She looked over at Scarlet first, she was her rightful queen after all, even despite her protests to the contrary.

“Obviously I don’t know what you mean.” Scarlet waved away the offer. “And even if I did, I think I’d be content with the companion I already have in that hypothetical scenario.”

Violet didn’t even properly process the question until she saw Razz looking at her expectantly. She looked down at her gloves and shook her head. “I couldn’t possibly. I couldn’t guarantee your safety if you came with me. There’s pretty much no telling where I’m going next and from what I’m told I can assume that it might not always be fun times and good adventures.”

Razz smiled a little. “Sounds like yah’ll be needing someone tah watch yah back.” And with no more said she knelt before Violet and began to speak a binding oath.

It was the same oath that had once bound her to the Duke, that bound Scarlet and Merlot together still, that had bound so many queens to their most trusted servants a long time ago. It was a kind of connective magic ensuring that they would always be able to find one another. But it only worked if both sides reciprocated.

“How do you know you won’t end up regretting it?” Violet asked. “Maybe you’ll end up hating me worse than you did Desire.”

Scarlet snorted. “Come on Vi, give yourself a little credit. Of course you’re better than that piece of shit.”

“Have yah nevah done somefing yah thought yah might regret?” Razz asked. “Sometimes yah gotta just take a chance and hope its gonna be somefing good.”

“Fine.” Violet said with a begrudging tone, but despite that she was smiling. She spoke the second half of the oath and the binding was complete.

As they talked and laughed the hole to the Timeless Interstice behind them widened imperceptibly. It would take a day or two before anybody noticed it was getting bigger. They’d put up walls to try to contain it but they would of course do nothing. The hole would continue to grow, bigger and bigger, faster and faster. It wouldn’t be calamitous for years, maybe even decades yet but it would never stop. It would grow until it consumed this world and everyone in it, it was only a matter of time.

—

This is pathetic. Oh what I could have done with such an opportunity while I was still in charge of this body. Lionel sneered

Blitz had taken up Jacob’s spot on the fallen log, keeping watch on Talis and Eryntse. His leg twitched irritably as he sat and watched.

If I were piloting us right now I’d cook that bastard alive, that’s a no brainer. Nobody would even be all that mad about that.

“Shut up.” He muttered to himself.

And then, as an extra little treat we carve up the girl. We can even say that Talis got loose. We were simply too late to stop him from killing her. We don’t even need to jeopardise the trust that they’ve placed in you for some reason.

“I’m not doing that.”

You’ll never survive without me. You’re going to kill us both with your passivity, boy. You want to go home right?

Why should I? Blitz snapped. I don’t have a life to go back to. You took care of that. You killed everyone I ever cared about, everyone I ever loved. My parents, the ones that chose me and loved me and raised me as their own, killed by your hands, by my hands. What’s the point of going back home?”

I did it for your own good, my son. You were weak. You were weighed down by so much unnecessary baggage. And don’t you take that tone with me. Don’t pretend you’re too good for my help.

Blitz couldn’t deny that, remembering distinctly the feeling of being afraid, begging for his father’s help. He could claim he hadn’t wanted him to kill the creature charging at him, but what had he wanted really? The opportunity to retreat back into himself and pretend that what was happening was just another bad dream.

He wanted to make up for it. He wanted to do better, but he knew he’d slip or have to sleep sometime and then Lionel would be loose again to do whatever his foul id desired. If there were some way to exorcise him… It had happened before. His father had been gone, or at least buried until Vex started tapping on the glass, luring him back out. Maybe it could happen again. Maybe he could build a new life…

“And that’s when Blitz and I got put in big cannons and got sent through the sky to the boring grey castle.” Eryntse said. “And the box that they put us in? Too small. Far too small. Faaaaar too small! I didn’t particularly enjoy being in a box and I think if you were to really think about it you probably wouldn’t like it very much either.”

Talis had been watching Blitz and it seemed as though the kid was getting lost in his own thoughts, or, if he had to guess, his own internal dialogue with his father. “Say, Eryntse. Receiving hugs is so nice.”

“Ohmigosh yes! Hugs are the best!” she echoed enthusiastically. “I loooooooove giving them. I have just enough arms to hug people, but a lot of people don’t like receiving hugs as much as you which always makes me a little sad but I do try to be strong about it. But yeah I’m super glad that we are good friends now and we can hug. Like. All the time from now on.”

“Wouldn’t you like to receive a hug though?” Talis asked. “Sure, giving them is nice, but a nice reciprocal hug, now isn’t that something special.”

“Yeahhhhhhhh I guess it would be buuuut I’m not allowed to untie you, Jacob will get mad at me and shout at me again.” Eryntse fretted.

“Well I wouldn’t want that to happen,” muttered Talis.

“Yeah! See! This is why you’re such a good friend to me. Maybe… maybe even my new… best friend?” Eryntse glanced about, before somehow leaning in even closer with a conspiratorial meep. “I don’t want to be mean to Violet but, but… she’s never hugged me back. And, um, sometimes, I kind of wonder if she even wants to.”

Talis appeared to think, one hand even making a futile twitch for his goatee. “Well. What we could do is you untie me, we have the best hug ever, and then before Jacob gets back you tie me back again so he doesn’t get mad. I won’t tell anyone anything.”

Eryntse thought about it for a minute. “Mmmmmmm. I guess, but… won’t Blitz tell?”

“Blitz is your friend, right? And what would he possibly tell, that I behaved myself and got tied up right back afterward and I’m certainly well-behaved, best friend material?”

“You’re right.” Eryntse said happily as she started fiddling with the vines that held Talis in place. “Uuuuugh these are on so tight! Kind of rude to have them this tight, it’s really going to chafe your wrists after a while. That’s no way to treat my new best friend. I’m going have to have words with Sen when she gets back, or um, no I won’t because it’s a secret buuuuuut maybe I’ll just have a little word, um, just so she does know about how tight the vines were and how that’s not really acceptable.” As she talked she gradually managed to loosen the vines, enough that Talis was able to get one hand free and then another.

Talis stepped free of the beanstalk, rolled his shoulders and produced a sharp black dagger from some hidden pocket. “Thank you Eryntse, you really are the best contestant. Now come here and lets have that hug.”

Blitz finally snapped out of his reverie. All the back and forth talk from Talis and Eryntse had gone over his head, she was always talking so you just kind of had to tune her out at some point. But even he wasn’t self-involved enough not to notice Talis stepping free of the beanstalk.

Just let him do his thing.

If he’d had a clean guaranteed shot he would probably have blasted Talis with lightning, but there was a good chance he’d miss and Eryntse would take the brunt of it instead. But he refused to do nothing.

All this time he’d been just a vessel for his father, and even when he was awake and in control all he could do was hold his father back, constantly be flooded by his demands for blood and violence and mayhem, and sometimes out of fear he would let him do as he pleased. There was no hope of a normal life for him, but Eryntse… maybe she’d find the friend she was so desperately after. Maybe she’d make it out of this okay.

Don’t you dare, boy. I am your father and you will obey me.

Blitz leapt. He flung himself bodily at Talis and the pair of them slammed into the side of the beanstalk together. “Get back.” He yelled.

“No no no it’s ok!” she cried. “Don’t be mean to my best friend. He just wants to cuddle.”

“He’s going to-” Blitz felt a blade slice into his chest. His words dissolved into cries of pain. He coughed and wheezed and blood spilled from his mouth. “Run.”

Eryntse backed away. It was difficult to think that her best friend could be a bad person… but… another step back, another step back.

Blitz, certain that he was dying now, clamped his fingers as tightly as he could around Talis’ arm. Holding him in place as best as he could, giving Eryntse the chance to flee, to get away from this bastard. Talis’ knife stabbed into him again and again, he held tightly as long as he could, even as he felt himself fading away.

“Not as good as it would have been to kill the ‘Executrix’s’ addition to our game.” He said, thoughtfully. He looked past Blitz’s corpse, to Eryntse sobbing softly as she backed away. “But, hey there’s always the next round. See you soon E-”

He was stopped short by the crackle of electricity in his close proximity. Talis hurriedly unhooked Blitz’s dead hands from his body, and lacking any other support Blitz’s corpse fell away. It hit the ground and a blast of electricity pulsed through it, and then another, and another, in a regular rhythm. He was… He was defibrillating himself? Talis took a hurried step backwards, but it was too late, Blitz’s dead arm reached out and grabbed his leg in one unexpectedly quick movement. Blitz’s head wrenched itself backwards in a way that can’t have been comfortable and stared up at him furiously.

“You killed my son, you prick.” Lionel struggled for each word, electricity pulsing through him like a heartbeat. “Blitz… my boy…”

And then electricity was shooting out, through his hand, through Talis’ body. Talis screamed, tried to kick him away, tried to break his grasp, but he couldn’t. The pain was too much.

The ex gentleman fell to the floor. If not dead then close enough to it. Blitz’s corpse was still now. No more words, no more jerky movements. The electricity faltered and faded and Blitz and Lionel Wykerr were dead.