Divine Clash

[Pahrak Model ZX]

The Queen of the Land strolled through the gray-walled, torch-lit hall of her castle.  The skirt of her orange dress swept the floor, with the gleaming chain mail sewn into its front and back jingling softly.  Mail was also sewn into the shoulders of the dress and around her ribcage.  Her golden crown gleamed even in the faint light, showing the mountain-shaped emblem it bore just above her forehead.

 

She passed a knight headed in the opposite direction: a well-built bald man with a layer of mud on his armored legs.  He bowed.  “Your Majesty.”

 

She nodded.  “Commander.”

 

Both continued on their way, Land thinking, Seems something new has happened.

 

The hall terminated at two large stone doors, one bearing the emblem on her crown, the other bearing a symbol composed of eight wavy lines radiating out from a single point.  She gently pushed it open so as not to make a sound.  Beyond was the audience chamber, a large and rather bare room.  Two golden thrones sat at one end, an orange banner between them displaying the same marks that were on the door, with the eight-pointed sigil above the mountain.  There were no windows along the walls, with light instead coming from two magic lanterns—massive orbs of white light embedded in niches in the high, rounded ceiling.

 

Standing in the middle of the room facing the thrones was a tall woman with skin the same dark shade as Land’s, gently tapping one iron-covered foot against the floor.  She wore a light blue dress beneath a cloak of identical color, and silver gauntlets covered her forearms.  Her long black hair was tied in a braid, and atop her head sat a golden crown with the emblem of eight points.  She had her arms crossed, body stiff, oblivious to Land tip-toeing into the chamber.

 

Land reached out with her magic, taking command of the metal in the other woman’s boots.  With a short swirl of her hand, the other woman was pulled back a foot and spun around to face her, her arms shooting out to steady herself.

 

“L…Land, please don’t do that…”

 

“Haha!  Sorry, Gravity, but I must find some way to get your attention when you become gloomy.”

 

Gravity put a hand to her head as she found her footing.  Land frowned, asking, “So, what is it that’s troubling you?  Does this have to do with the knight I passed?”

 

“…Well, yes, but it is no great trouble, really—not something you have to worry yourself with.”

 

Land put her hands on her hips.  “Now dear, what have I told you about keeping me in the dark like that?  Tell me.”

 

Gravity averted her eyes and rubbed her neck, humming reluctantly.  Land leaned in closer and hummed even louder.  Gravity cracked a smile.

 

“Alright, alright.  We received a report that a company flying the banner of Kenzaria was seen marching towards Pyrada.”

 

Land’s eyebrows shot up.  “Oh…and your response?”

 

“I said to ignore them.  This does not concern Roche, so Roche will not become involved.”

 

 “…Ah,” Land said, leaning back.

 

Gravity’s face went blank.  “…You disagree?”

 

The other Queen fidgeted with one hand.  “Well, it’s just…rather…”

 

Gravity threw her arms apart.  “W-What, did I do something wrong?  If War means to start a conflict with Fire, I don’t want us to get dragged into it!”

 

Land sighed.  “I know, dear, but—and I mean this in the most loving way possible—sometimes you’re a bit too single-minded.  If we have the opportunity to help Fire, especially in a case as simple as just one company, then I think we should take it.”

 

Gravity crossed her arms again.  “Hmmm…I certainly don’t bear Fire any ill will, but War is someone we need to tread by carefully.  If we destroy one of her companies, then I don’t imagine she will simply forgive us.”

 

“Well I’m not saying we should kill them.  You could just…”  She made a sweeping gesture.  “Fling them all back to Kenzaria!  War might get angry, but I doubt she’ll be willing to fight three Queens at the same time.  Even she isn’t that berserk.”

 

Gravity closed her eyes.  She rubbed her chin and said, “…I suppose, if a conflict were to arise, the two would essentially be fighting on our doorstep.  This could be a chance to stop that before it begins.”

 

Land smiled and wrapped her arms around Gravity’s midsection.  “Mm-hm.  Sounds like a good idea, don’t you think?”

 

The embrace was returned.  “You know, one day I’m going to win one of these disagreements.”

 

“I dearly hope you will; being right all the time is really quite boring.”

 

“I imagine so.”

 

Gravity touched Land’s face, smiled, and kissed her.  When they separated, she said, “In the interest of time, I shall go…”  She made a slightly jerky sweeping gesture.  “‘Fling’ the troops personally.  Based on their projected course and speed, I imagine I will be gone for about three days in total.”

 

“I believe Roche can function with only one Queen for that long.  But a day longer, and we might fall entirely to pieces!”

 

The two of them laughed.  Land stepped back and made an exaggerated bow.  “Please hurry back, dear Queen of Gravity.”

 

Gravity knelt on one knee.  “Yes, Your Majesty.”

 

***

 

Land sat on her throne, fingers digging into the armrests.  Outside the doors of the audience chamber, she could hear guards shouting, screaming, and ultimately collapsing on the floor.

 

This can’t be happening…

 

Slowly, the doors swung open.  In stepped a muscular tan-skinned woman with long blonde hair, covered from the neck down in armor—mostly silver, though her breastplate, arm guards, and greaves were golden.  A broadsword was sheathed at her waist, its bronze scabbard encrusted with gemstones of various reds and blues and greens.  She too wore a crown, though her emblem depicted a sword impaling a shield.

 

Land swallowed hard and tried to harden her face.

 

The intruder walked to the center of the chamber and stopped, bowing slightly.  “Good day, Queen of the Land.  I have come to seek an audience with you.”

 

“…Queen of War.”  She tried not to look at the corpses just beyond the door.  “If I may say so, I find your methods rather excessive.”

 

War rested one hand on her sword’s pommel.  “I assure you I only acted in self-defense.”  Her tone was smooth, as if this matter were as trivial as a crooked painting.  “Those who attacked me met with a swift end.  Everyone else was left unharmed.”

 

Land ground her teeth for a moment.  “Perhaps you should simply state what brings you here.  Something about revenge, perhaps?”

 

“Ah, so I take it the Queen of Gravity was riding for my company after all?  Good.  Then she shall be gone awhile.”

 

“…I see.  You never intended for them to reach Pyrada in the first place.”

 

“Your wife would never allow me an audience.”

 

Land shot to her feet.  “You would sacrifice your own people as bait?!  That’s despicable even for you!”

 

War raised one eyebrow.  “Sacrifice?  The Queen of Gravity will not kill them.  If I am right, then the only reason she went is because you asked her to, and I know you would never ask her to kill someone.”

 

She received no reply.

 

“Back to the moment at hand, I merely wish to be sure that my point has been made.”

 

Land hung her head.  “…That’s all this was?  Making a point?”

 

She laughed.  It was a dry, hollow sound.  “You really are terrible.  Maybe I’m terrible, too, because I understand it.  With this, you want the people of Roche to see that you’re the one truly in charge, correct?  That you can manipulate Gravity and me and stride in here whenever you please, killing anyone who gets in your way?”

 

After a slight pause, the corner of War’s mouth curled into a smirk.  “Something to that effect.”

 

She made an about-face.  “With that conveyed, I have no further business here.  Please give my regards to the Queen of Gravity.”

War walked towards the exit, her boots pounding a slow melody against the floor.  The doors suddenly slammed shut.  She halted.

 

“…You forget something, War,” came Land’s voice, barely more than a whisper.  “There is still a Queen in Roche.”

 

War looked over her shoulder.  The chain mail on Land’s dress was spreading, seeping out like a puddle in the rain, clinking and rustling ever so slightly, until it came together in one single sheet that covered her entire dress.  Additional, thicker armor rose from her boots, sleeves, and torso, bleeding out from the mail and quickly hardening into steel rivaling that of the finest craftsman.

 

Land looked up and opened her eyes, letting them bore into War’s soul.

 

“I see,” War said.  “I suppose that, if you were to defeat me, it would undo all I have sought to accomplish.”

 

Land just stared.

 

War grinned.  “Very well.”

 

She turned and drew her sword with a ringing scrape, holding it with both hands as she watched Land.  Several seconds of silence passed.

 

A stalagmite shot up from the floor beneath War.  She jumped to the side, not suffering any damage, and quickly launched herself towards Land, blade arcing towards her opponent’s neck.  Land raised both hands—two shoots of metal burst from her arm guards and entwined together, shaping into a thin sword to parry War’s attack.  The chamber shook from the clash.  Rocks rained down from the ceiling, forcing War to back off and dance around the falling stone.  Before long, however, the rocks all froze in place, many in mid-fall.  War looked to Land, who carried her new blade in one hand and held the other aloft, open palm facing the ceiling.  War’s eyes widened.

 

She leapt back just in time as all the loose rubble converged on the spot where she had stood, forcibly mashing together into one single boulder.  It pursued her, plowing her right through the doors and down the hallway.  Shaking off the pain, War braced herself and threw a punch, pulverizing the boulder into dust.  Something whizzed by her.  A cut formed on her cheek.  Land was advancing, commanding the floor to carry her forward at a pace beyond that of human legs.  War thrust, so Land altered her path, being carried onto the wall and sweeping past her opponent.  War jumped against the opposite wall to avoid her swing.  The wall opened up to embrace her, but as the rocky fingers wrapped around her and pulled, she tore herself free of the stone’s grip and threw herself into Land, launching her farther down the hall.

 

Land ended up on the balcony of the castle foyer, a wide-open room with brick floors interspersed with a few patches of flowers, a tall five-tiered fountain at its center.  She turned back to see War running towards her, and took up a more solid stance.  War leapt forward and pulled her sword above her head.  Land jumped off the balcony, and as her enemy struck it, she commanded it to pull itself off of the wall and carry War through the opposite wall and out of the castle.

 

She hit the ground a bit hard, but recovered quickly and commanded the castle doors to swing open.  She walked towards where the balcony had fallen just a short distance down the dirt road leading up to the entryway.  The castle was built into the mountain ridge that circled Roche in its entirety, with windows and turrets carved into one side of the ring’s interior, with one end of this design terminating at the waterfall that allowed fresh water into the queendom.  Clusters of stone buildings dotted the grassy landscape, most of them reasonably close together, but none close enough to the castle that she would have to worry about the civilians.

 

War lay pinned beneath the balcony.  With a single push, she rolled it away, and she was back on her feet in a moment.  She raised her sword once more, but Land simply kicked the ground.  The earth beneath War fell away, letting her tumble into the sudden abyss, and when Land brought her hands together, the walls of the crevice closed in on their prey with a deafening thunderclap.

 

Land took a deep breath.  “What are you waiting for?”

 

A geyser of crimson light erupted from the ground.  Debris rained down around Land, and when the light faded, a 90 meter-deep crater twice the radius of the now-vaporized balcony lay before her.  War climbed out of it, covered in dirt and laughing the whole way.  When she stood on its lip, she looked to Land, eyes gleaming, body shaking with each hysteric heave, tracks of grime and blood running down her face.

 

“Doesn’t this bring back memories, Land?  I haven’t seen you like this since the old days!  Hahaha, and here I was worried you had forgotten how to fight in your millennia of complacency!  Ohh, I am so thrilled to be proven wrong!  Hahahaha!”

 

War rushed forward.  Land parried and retaliated.  War ducked and punched, sending Land sprawling, and then swung downward.  Land rolled aside and tapped the ground, commanding it to knock War into the air, and then came up on her knees and thrust one palm towards her foe.  Bits of rock burst from the castle wall, shooting at War like a flurry of arrows as she fell.  War twisted, deflecting a few of the projectiles with her sword, and a small rectangle of crimson light then appeared to protect her from the rest.  When she neared the ground, Land ceased the barrage and had the earth rise up to meet her; War merely swung at it, cleaving the soil in two and landing without further harm.

 

Land tried taking control of War’s armor, but before she could, War closed the distance and cut her arm.  She dropped her sword and had the ground pull her away from the next swing.  War pressed her advantage, but Land stood firm.  Before the combatants came close again, two long spikes grew out from Land’s armor, piercing War’s shoulders.  The spikes detached from Land and carried War back and up, before Land pivoted and they took War back through the castle wall, driving her through the fountain and sticking her to the foyer floor like a bug.

 

She laughed.

 

War ripped the spikes out of her shoulders, oblivious to the pain.  The foyer started to tremble as a legion of stalactites fell upon her.  She flexed and crimson radiated from her body, smashing anything that came near her.  Her aura faded and she stepped forward.  The surviving stalactites then swarmed her, binding together in such a way that she could not move an inch.

 

And still she laughed.

 

Land walked into the foyer, commanding her sword to return to her hand.  “You have a vulgar sense of humor, War.  Perhaps next time you should select a body with a bit more self-control.”

 

“Hahaha!  You speak as though you’ve won, Land!”

 

The fused stalactite started to shake.  Land tried to keep it whole, but before long it crumbled apart, War using her new freedom to swing at Land yet again.  After a quick parry, Land swung in return, giving an extra magical push to the blade.  War was able to block it, but she could not pull away.  They remained locked like this as fissures began to form in the floor.

 

Land grunted.  “What has Roche done to wrong you, War?  Try as I may, I cannot fathom what vendetta would bring you here like this!”

 

War flashed her teeth.  “Vendetta?  You are mistaken, Land—you and Gravity have not wronged me in any way.”

 

Land pushed harder, forcing War back.  “Then why?!”

 

“Simple!  You—that is to say, Roche is the biggest potential threat.  If Kenzaria were ever to go against Roche, there would be very little chance of success.  The might of two Queens is something that no one can fight head-on.  And, when there exists a power one cannot deal with through direct force…”

 

War ducked.  She sprung forward but stayed low, and with no resistance on her blade, Land tripped forward.

 

“One must find a strategic way to cripple it!”

 

War cut Land’s side, her blade slicing straight through the armor in its way.  Land shouted and fell.  A thrust was aimed at her spine, but she rolled aside and jumped at War.  Her fist connected with her opponent’s armored shoulder, and she used a short burst of magic to make the metal twist inward and pierce the skin it was meant to protect, scraping against the bone beneath.  As War staggered, Land raised both hands, willing a rock roughly 10-meters in diameter into being above them as blood dripped down her mail-covered skirt.  With a heave, she dropped the boulder on top of War, and then clutched her side and tried to catch her breath.

 

War laughed.

 

She crawled out from beneath the stone, her armor dented in several places.  Reaching to her injured shoulder, she tore off the plate Land had affected, unstopping a brief torrent of blood.  Turning to Land, she threw the scrap of armor, hitting her target on the hand.  An audible crunch followed.

 

Land cried out.  War stood and swung again.  The blade sank into Land’s forearm, becoming stuck in her armor.  War tried to wrench it free, but Land pulled her in and drove a knee into her ribs, once again distorting the armor she hit.  War doubled over.  She managed to pull her weapon free and stumbled away, clawing at the edge of her breastplate, but Land generated another, smaller stone and shot it at War, hitting her like a hammer and sending her skidding across the floor.

 

Land stepped forward.  Her legs buckled, and she fell to her knees.

 

“…You…shall not… have your way…!”

 

She slowly rose to her feet.  “Roche will be kept safe!  That is my duty, as one…as one of its Queens!”

 

War sat up, burying her sword point-first in the floor.  A crackling chuckle left her lips.  “You…you are truly a force to be reckoned with, Land…this is exactly…why I knew I had to c…cripple…Roche.”

 

Land coughed.  A trail of blood slipped from the corner of her mouth.  “Come, then.  But I promise: I shall not be the one who falls today!”

 

War pulled herself to her feet and leaned on her sword.  After taking a few deep breaths, she looked up at Land and smiled.  With a roar, she uprooted her blade and broke into a sprint.  Land threw her hands up, and a pillar of rock rose from the ground and bent towards the attacker.  War turned, letting it impact her shoulder; she fell, but she continued to roll forward, and when she came up, she took her sword in both hands and thrust.

 

“Guh!!”

 

Land’s arms fell to her sides.  She looked down and saw War against her, the blade buried in her chest and sticking out of her back.

 

“…Huh…ha!”

 

War exhaled.  Her face grew calm, and she brought herself next to Land’s ear.  When she spoke, her tone was steady and even, but this time with a deep sincerity to it.  “I want you to know that I have the utmost respect for you.  In your absence, I will not touch Roche without provocation.  Gravity will be allowed to grieve in peace.”

 

Land’s breathing became shallow.  She could feel her heart trembling, fighting with all its might to push out the obstruction that had pierced it.  But it was futile.

 

War pulled back and looked Land in the eye.  “And…thank you.  I haven’t been forced to fight like that in far too long…and, in a way…”

 

She gave an oddly soft smile.  “It was nice to see another Queen grow as ferocious as me.”

 

Another moment passed, and then War withdrew her sword.  Land crumpled.  The light faded from her eyes, and as one final breath escaped her lips, her crown dropped from her head and rolled across the floor.

 

***

 

A thrill lanced through her body—a feeling not unlike having a narrow brush with death, yet somehow completely different.  Thousands of years’ worth of memories poured into her mind in an instant, leaving her stunned, and something unspeakably primal flowed into the deepest part of her being, melding itself to her so completely that when the moment passed, she could no longer remember what it felt to think of them as separate.

 

“Land?”

 

She blinked.  Looking down, she saw a larger, slightly younger body than her last, clad in plain orange robes.  The comparison seemed strange for a moment, but it passed as she remembered her circumstances.  She sat up—a hand helped her, and she became aware of Gravity standing over her.  For a second she was intimidated, before remembering the two were now equals, as they had always been.

 

“G…Grav…ity…?”  Her new voice had a different pitch to it.  That would take some getting used to.  Or, had she always been used to it?  This dissonance was like no other, but it was also entirely familiar.

 

Gravity nodded.  Her eyes were puffy and wet, and her shoulders shook slightly.  “It’s been about a year, Land,” she said in her calmest, gentlest voice.  “Once the allowed time of possession passed, Fire got your crown back from War, and we found a new body for you right away.  How…”

 

She hesitated, then finished, “How are you feeling?”

 

The new Queen of the Land looked around.  She was back in the Queens’ bedchamber in Roche castle, the single magic lantern in the ceiling casting its illumination on the elegantly carved bookshelves and wardrobes that lined the room.  She was sitting on the bed, its canopy drawn up and the dark blue sheets slightly uneven, and she and Gravity were the only ones in the room.

 

Flashes of memory returned to her.  She remembered War taking her crown to Kenzaria, setting it on a shelf in her audience chamber for all to see.  For an entire year, Land just sat there, still self-aware, but having no means of interacting with the world around her, seeing so many people come and go but being totally, completely alone.

 

Air evaded her lungs.  Her arms jerked towards Gravity.  She was pulled into her wife’s shoulder, and together they wept.

 

When the tears finally stopped, they just sat there, holding each other in silence.  Touching their foreheads together, Gravity whispered, “I’m so sorry, Land.  I promise: nothing like that will ever happen to you again.  Roche shall be cut off from the rest of the world, and we will grow so strong that not even War will dare to challenge us.  I will do everything in my power to keep you safe for the rest of eternity, my love.”

 

Something in the back of Land’s mind protested.  This proposal seemed so extreme, she thought, so unnecessary…so lonely.

 

But she nodded.  She threw her face back onto Gravity’s shoulder, and found she was perfectly willing to just melt away from the world.

Edited April 12, 2015 by Pahrak #0579