By the Red Moon Part 51
In the lowest level of Dekim's castle, the damp air took on a dank smell from the runoff water that occasionally dripped from the dark walls. Dozens of holding cells stretched out along the corridors with their barred doors open. Since the dark sorcerer was not one to have a use for those who failed him or worked against him, there were no prisoners kept alive...
...with the exception of one.
At the very end of the long stretch, four armed guards stood by the one door that was closed off from the rest of the world.
Inside, there was a single, tiny window sealed off with three bars high in one of the walls. There was no sense for the person inside to even try and guess what time of day it was due to the constant cover of dark clouds outside. What little light did come into the space was the product of the flickering torches in their holders in the hallway. And the life inside of that room was about to stir.
The sound of heavy footsteps approaching her cell had Midi waking instantly from her uneasy sleep. Uncurling herself along the floor, she stared up to the barred doors and pulled the dirtied shawl that had once been pristinely white around her shoulders to cover the few inches of her upper breastplate exposed by the cut of her deep orange dress.
Her brown eyes narrowing when the grotesque ogre unlocked and opened her cage, she cringed at the lecherous gleam in its black eyes. Lowering the plate of food and the glass of water that he had brought to the floor, the guard straightened and continued to stare at the lovely queen a moment before turning to leave.
As the rusty lock moaned at the turn of the key to latch it, Midi made for her breakfast and made a point of not devouring it with the eyes of the soldiers watching her beyond the door. Though her stomach was cramping with the pain of being hungry for so long, she was not about to give those monsters the satisfaction of seeing the true depth of her suffering.
No, instead, she sat tall and proud as she took each bite of the bread, eggs and meat slowly. Taking the time to chew for a time, she sipped from the water while fighting the urge to tremble from being just on the cusp of dehydration.
Only she would know how her body ached from head-to-toe from hunger and thirst. Only she would know how heartbroken she was in knowing how she had been used as the pawn in Dekim Barton's plan to have her husband turned to side with him, or her fear for their daughter who had been left behind to oversee their kingdom.
Just the thought of Sylvia, so young and not nearly prepared enough to face the challenges that were surely mounting against her as well as the rest of the world, had Midi sick to her stomach. Still, she forced herself to eat to survive.
But somehow, she was determined that she was going to find a way through this ordeal. Somehow, she was going to have her family back. And so, she needed to stay strong. She needed to keep her head and be ready if there were ever an opportunity that should arise that she could act upon.
The queen's thoughts came to an abrupt halt when she picked up on the sound of footsteps that were much too light to belong to an ogre making their way along the corridor. Brushing back a few strands of her long, brown hair, she peered up just as none other than Dekim Barton himself appeared at her door.
"Ah, Midi, my darling," the old man smirked as the guard opened the cell to him. Stepping inside, he asked in a singsong voice, "And how are you on this beautiful morning?" Glaring heatedly up at him, the queen remained still. With a put on frown of concern, he shook his head, "Not very well? What a pity."
Once again, the queen was not about to give her captor the satisfaction by responding to anything. This was all a part of the sorcerer's daily routine to come down and taunt her. What he failed to realize was that his doing so only kept the anger and hatred of him and all he stood for alive, giving her what she needed to live on in anticipation of seeing him fail.
The prophecy never guaranteed victory for her fellow man against Barton, but Midi had to hope that he would eventually fall. In her mind, there simply could be no other outcome to the war. Treize had taught her that the key to one's survival was to never allow the thought of failure to set in, no matter how bleak the situation may be. And so, she would continue to fight in her own way by heeding those words.
Good would prevail in the end. That was the long and the short of her logic, and that was enough. How Prince Duo and those working alongside him would defeat the sorcerer did not matter. They simply would.
Dekim stepped up to his most prized captive and suggested, "Perhaps a night in my bed will persuade you to see me differently. Such a lovely, delicate flower like yourself really should not be sealed away in a living tomb like this."
With the side of his mouth curling up, he said in a predatory growl, "Let me be the real man that your husband never was to you before he became my puppet." Gently, be brushed back a few strands of hair that had fallen over her heart-shaped face.
Her skin crawling, Midi could no longer hold back. Turning her head quickly, she spit on his hand and rose to her feet, falling just short of being at eye level with him. "What is the matter, Dekim?" she sneered. Smirking, she questioned in her smooth tone, "Is your little whore of a witch not doing it for you anymore?"
The wide-eyed look on the sorcerer's face only lasted a heartbeat before his other hand wheeled around to strike her roughly across the cheek, making her head reel to the side at the force of the blow.
Quickly taking hold of her chin, Dekim forcer her to meet his eyes as the left side of her face showed the early signs of bruising. He took quite a bit of pleasure in seeing how it was going to be quite the ghastly mark when it set it.
"Say what you will of my servants," Dekim hissed, his own face red with his reined in rage. "But. You. Will. Respect. Me. I want that to be perfectly clear." Even as her cheek burned with pain, Middi kept her head high and her narrowed eyes from watering. The pain was worth the glimpse of shock on the old man.
With a deep, slow breath, Barton calmed himself and his smug grin returned. "Oh, I can see how that fire in you drew Treize to you. I would love to see what that kind of passion would ignite between my sheets."
Licking his lips, he ran the calloused pad of his thumb along her jaw line. "You know fully well that I can take whatever I want, just as I took your husband for his knowledge of warfare. There is nothing in this world that I could not snap my fingers and have."
'Except for Prince Duo,' Midi thought to herself, contenting herself to knowing that without pushing the sorcerer into carrying out his threat in taking her. Swallowing roughly, she held her breath but kept their gazes locked.
After a long and intense moment of consideration, Dekim pulled back and dropped his hand away. "However, I find matters of the flesh much more pleasurable when it is given to me willingly," he smiled.
Rolling his shoulders back, he said confidently, "And you will either break, or you will continue to wallow alone in your misery here until you wither away once whatever it is you are holding onto that keeps you strong fades away. Either one of those options is perfectly fine with me."
Gladly willing to suffer the latter before she ever shared the same bed with such a vile monster, the queen made the decision for him.
Waving his hand, the sorcerer told her, "You have another pleasant day, my dear." That said, he stepped out of the cell and slammed the door behind him.
As the guard used his key to lock the entrance again, Dekim stared through the bars to his prisoner and told her, "I will see to it that you are taken to the public bath as I am afraid that you smell a bit... ripe this morning, flower." Chuckling in amusement, he turned and walked off with his footsteps echoing through the corridor.
Her heart pounding in her chest, Midi fought her growing panic. There were fewer things that she disliked more than the public bath and Dekim knew that. In that room, she was completely exposed to the looming, lust-filled eyes of the creatures of the Keeper standing by.
With her hands balling into tight fists at her sides, the queen held onto that beautiful anger building inside of her. She would allow them to humiliate and intimidate her all they wanted. It only served the opposite intent.
She was not going to give in. Whatever other uncertainties remained that surrounded her fate, that much was crystal clear.
No matter the challenges ahead, she would not break.
* * * * * *
Opening his eyes, Duo froze as they widened. Her own eyes wide, Catherine stood stiffly beside him and stammered, "T-That... is very impressive."
For as far as their eyes could see before them, the fields stretched out ahead were petrified in stone. Right down to the fine strands of grass, and up to the tops of the trees, everything in view was devoid of any color as it stood frozen in the places that they had before the spell had been cast.
Rabbits, squirrels and several other wild animals that had been scurrying about in their everyday lives were mobile no more as they were locked in rock forms of themselves. And not a single sound could be heard where seconds before there had been the happy chirping of the birds, the rustling of the grass in the breeze and the running of water in the nearby stream that was completely motionless.
Even the wind itself seemed to be holding its breath in amazement.
Lowering his hands that he had held at the height of his chest, the prince blinked in disbelief. "I can't believe that I did this," he murmured. Though he had been training for weeks, starting small and building in his training to home in both sides of his gift, this was the largest scale that he had managed to accomplish using his dark magic only.
To actually see first-hand a taste of what he was truly capable of was as thrilling as it was unnerving in a way. Still, he could feel that the seams of his gift within him had not been stretched to anywhere near their limits yet.
It was as if he were standing on a beach, staring out to a vast ocean of possibilities within his power.
"Now, do you think that you can use your light magic to turn it back?" Catherine questioned when she finally found her voice again. Facing her braided friend, she reassured quietly, "Now that you know what it took to extend your dark magic, your light should be able to counter what you have just accomplished."
Swallowing roughly, Duo nodded and raised his hands again. His violet eyes closing again, he took in a deep, long breath that he exhaled slowly to center himself. No longer focusing on the cold and empty sensations of his dark abilities, he trained his mind to calling upon the light while he pushed himself back within himself.
The moment he could feel every inch of himself being engulfed in that warm and welcoming awareness, he opened his eyes and sent it out. A ball of shimmering light shot forward over the field, bringing back to life everything that it touched.
Within seconds, everything around was alive and vibrant once again as the stream bubbled once more and the breeze ran through the tall stalks of grass. Stunned only for a moment when they came back to themselves, the feathered and furry creatures went back to whatever it was they had been doing prior to their being frozen.
Letting out a laugh, Duo reached up to run a hand though his bangs as he whispered, "Damn. I think I'm actually starting to get the hang of this."
"I'll say you are!" Catherine exclaimed as she threw her arms around him, her face beaming with pride for her pupil. "That was brilliant!" she cheered as their friends standing by ran into the scene to greet them.
The first to reach his lover as the fires-starter pulled away from him, Heero pulled him into his own arms and kissed him soundly. "Excellent job," the knight smiled warmly when they came up for air. Resting their foreheads together, he said softly, "I'm proud of you."
No matter how many times his partner complimented him in any way, it never failed to make the prince's cheeks redden. Doing his best to hide his blush, Duo lightly slapped the Commander's arm and grinned, "Thank you."
Beside herself, Hilde shook her head, "That was... I never... Nobody has ever..." letting out an exasperated sigh, she threw her hands in the air and shouted, "That was one of the amazing things I've ever seen!" The rest of the band standing around laughed and nodded their heads in agreement with the sentiment.
Patting his student on the back, Quatre smirked, "For about a month's worth of work, you really have come a long way very quickly. And the more experience that you have with calling upon your ability, the easier it will come to you."
Duo could already feel the truth of that. There were a variety of forms that both this light and dark sides of the gift were able to take on.
Over the course of his training, he was able to make literal weapons of them in the form of swords, bows and arrows that were a hundred times more effective than any such man-made tool. He had been able to make things simply not exist anymore, making them vanish into thin air and bring shriveled plants back to life.
And still, the prince knew that there were so many other ways that he could use his gift. For all intents and purposes, if he could imagine it, he could warp his magic to take on any form that he wanted. Death was only one facet. And it was the one that seemed to commonly want to come to the forefront the angrier he was.
But the most impressive aspect that truly amazed Duo was how in tune his gift was with everyone around him. More and more, it was almost as though he were becoming empathic. It was one of the first tests that Catherine had given him to use on a daily basis to enforce the balance within himself.
While the dark half of his gift could search the soul of a person, he was able to see that there was always the potential for evil to take hold and set in. However, at that same time, his light half was able to read what was in that same person's heart and how they followed their own morals to not be swayed.
It was that constant use of both sides of his gift that continued to keep him sane in that it helped Duo realize that truly good and evil could not exist without the other. And that meant not only within himself, but within every living person. [1]
Relena stepped up and rubbed the prince's arm and smiled, "This was quite the large step from the same person who was scared of his own shadow when he found out about his gift not very long ago. It has been a real pleasure watching you in this process and I am thrilled that you have accepted who you are."
Shrugging, Duo looked to his friends around and commented, "Well, again, I wouldn't have been able to without all of your support in this." Her tail wagging, Deathscythe pressed her head in to lightly nudge her rider as a deep purr rumbled through her chest. Chuckling, he patted her head and smirked, "Yes, that includes you, too, girl."
"We have company approaching," Wufei called from his post atop a nearby hill with Nataku. Instantly alert, the lot gathered in the center of the field turned their full attention to the swordsman.
Judging by the tension in his shoulders, he clearly was not certain to whether that 'company' was friendly or not. When he climbed into his saddle and removed his blade from its hilt, the tension that was already in the air rose.
From their place at the opposite side of the field, Anna and Nataku took off to reach their sides before the others. Hooking an arrow to her bow and pulling back on it, she closed a blue eye on her target.
As the dragons and their riders landed close to follow their gazes to the east, they to found three low and dark forms running towards them. Frowning deeply, Duo leaned forward in his saddle and squinted to make out what he was looking at.
Trowa shielded his eyes against the setting sun and realized aloud, "Werewolves."
His eyes widening, Maxwell snapped his braided head to the scout beside him and laughed, "Werewolves?! But they don't exist-" Cutting himself off, he blinked and turned his head to his lover at his other side. "Do they?" he asked.
Rigid in his saddle and his sword drawn and waiting in a tight fist, Heero was still staring forward at the three shadows.
Those figures, indeed, were taking on the form of massive wolves moving in a 'V' formation. And there was no question that they were heading right for the team gathered on the hill. Too focused in his preparation to protect his partner if need be, the Commander never even heard the question.
Anna was the one to peer from the corner of her eye to her prince and responded, "Just because you cannot see something, it does not mean that it is not real. Only months ago, you did not believe that dragons existed. Werewolves are very much real in this world. They simply prefer to keep to themselves."
Gesturing to the small pack drawing ever more near, she said, "This is very unusual for them to come near to anyone but their own in broad daylight."
Still reeling from laying his eyes on actual werewolves, Duo focused back on them and sent an invisible stream of both sides of his gifts forward to feel their souls and hearts. "They're not here to hurt us, so you can lower your weapons." Surprised by the comment, his ring of protection looked back at him.
Their visitors needed to get closer yet before Quatre confirmed, "He is right. Stand down." With sheepish expressions for the smirking prince, the knights and the king lowered their weapons and dismounted from their saddles as their steeds physically eased.
When the great wolves were only a few feet away, they slowed to a walk and stopped. The wolf in the front was shaded a deep silver while the beast to his left wore a coat of white and the one on the right was a black shade.
Before Duo's widening eyes, the head wolf materialized into a crouching young man. Straightening himself, the tall blond wore silver clothing that clung to him from his shoulders to his feet.
His eyes a nearly transparent blue and partially shielded by his long bangs, the werewolf smiled in greeting to the humans and nodded firmly, "Representatives of the Alliance. My name is Alex. My friends and I come bearing news from the north that I believe you need to hear."
TBC...
[1] Once again, major thanks to ShenLong Deb for her mention of how cool this aspect of his gift would be. Wonderful suggestion, hon!! Thank you!!! *hugs tight*
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