ELBK00 | Perception | Chapter 11 - We Stick to the Plan. (Patreon)

<-<-PREVIOUS CHAPTER | NEXT CHAPTER ->-> | CHAPTER LIST ₍^. .^₎⟆

Whipped by loose strands of hair and with ears ringing from the howl of the wind, I stood atop the cliffs of Leúchtend overlooking the ocean. Seaspray hissed against the jagged rocks below like a coiling snake, but the sharp crackle of fire stayed off the cold. A crowd of mourners gathered around the funeral pyre billowing at the very edge of the cliff, snapping and spitting hot embers into the dusk. Plumes of angry black smoke billowed upward, staining the red-streaked sky.

Behind me, the Fae castle lay in ruins. Great chunks of pretty marble fallen in the battle lay like toppled giants among the scattering of broken bodies and weapons. We’d won the fight against the Fae, driven them from their home and claimed the territory for ourselves. But it wasn’t without cost. Mercury had fallen, and half of our family had betrayed us.

Eiríkr was rigid and silent at my side, watching as flame danced in hungry curls up the timber bracing of the grand wooden platform. His eyes were an ocean of sorrow, rimmed red and glistening with unfallen tears. Though too young for it, he took Mercury’s place as head of our family and bore the weight of succession while still drowning in loss. His upper lip pulled into a venomous sneer of contempt for those who did this, while his lower lip trembled with the grief of a son who loved his father. I thought a single word might have shattered him into pieces for how fragile he seemed. 

Mercury lay atop the pyre, and he was not alone. His boar, also killed in battle, lay at his feet and his sword rested clasped under his hands as if he were sleeping. Dressed in fine clothes and laid on top of a brilliant fur cloak, coins, amulets, knives and shields were placed around him, each a gift from those who remained. Eiríkr had given a single item, his revenant necklace, which he laid on his fathers chest. He had risked his life to claim Mercury’s body amidst the final onslaught of Fae, and had in no small part, secured our victory.

We’d been too slow to grasp the betrayal, and when our leader fell, the battlefield polarized. The last of the Fae forces used the chaos to escape, and telling friend from foe became more like stepping blind through a field of hidden landmines. Katla’s horde retreated when they realised they were outnumbered. They scurried away like rats. Cowards.

When the fire caught Mercury’s clothes, Eiríkr’s composure faltered. He gave a shuddering, ragged breath, and took an involuntary step forward. 

I placed a hand on his shoulder, fearing he would walk into the flame. “Don’t,” I warned sternly. 

“But that’s my dad-…” he swallowed the sob that broke his voice. To show weakness wasn’t permitted. If the others were to see him cry, he would be forced to fight to keep his title, and he was too young to win… They would kill him.

Our cousins departed one by one with somber quiet as the flames dwindled. Kári nudged Eiríkr on the way past, giving a small nod of acknowledgement between them, while Karyna offered a half-hearted smile. Where I failed to understand the depth of Eiríkr’s emotions they, of anyone, might. Their own parents were killed when they were young, and they share the same kind of soft-hearted natures as Eiríkr. They aren’t as feeble as the pathetic side of our family, but they are the next weakest links and their blood is only half.

Not that it makes any amount of difference now, given it was my own mother and father, who had helped Katla in her coup. They were responsible for ‘felling the god Merkuríus’, and Hrafn took it personally. He has always been loyal to Mercury. Part of him feels the loss as deeply as if he were truly Mercury’s son, given that is what he always wished to be. He stood further back, unable to bear coming too near the funeral flame. 

The betrayal set my brother and I somewhat of a drift in its wake. We are the children of Silvíus, Mercury’s brother, and Yliana, Katla’s own twin, and it earned us no favors. Being the children of usurpers, some believed we had no right to be here, and had called for our execution in retaliation, but Eiríkr disallowed it. He chose even to spare Hrafn, and an unsteady truce has settled between them. 

By the time the waning moon was beginning to fall, Eiríkr and I were the only ones who remained. I had waited all through the night with him, sitting by his side, and petting his hair. He cried when there was no one else to see, but those tears had long since dried with the heat of the fire leaving him hollow. He stared at the coals and small licking flames, stuck in the torpor of sorrow as the essence of his father turned to ash. 

I’d only seen this child like this twice before. Once weeks after his leg was damaged in his first revenant, after all attempts to restore his mobility had failed and realization brought misery. And then again sometime later after a string of inexplicable nightmares that left him weeping for no reason he would say. He doesn't remember those nightmares now, but the memory stays with me.

“He didn’t finish his conquest…”  Eiríkr broke the quiet of the dawn with an almost inaudible mumble.

“What was that?” I prompted softly, brushing the hair from his face.

“The Fae escaped… and my mother is claiming dominion…” 

“Yes…”

“It can’t stay that way…”

“There’s nothing that can be done, it’s too late now,” I soothed.

“Yes there is.” He sat up, pushing himself off the ground to stand.

“Eiríkr…”

“Don’t call me that anymore.” The orange glow of fire danced in his hair as his lifeless gaze shifted downward to me. The boy had been replaced by an abyssal umber, and through his eyes, I saw destitution. “I am the son of Mercury. His legacy lives on through me. I will burn this world to the ground, and rule over the ashes in his stead.”

***

More than a decade has passed since that night, and I haven’t seen Eiríkr in almost as long. The Fae have had him for far too long. They hold him captive in the last of their pretentious strongholds, and once Katla is dealt with, I will come for him. I just have to be patient, but that doesn’t stop the hatred I feel. It pulses up the back of my neck and is so potent I can taste it. We will have him back soon.

Brimstone and fire swirled in my mind as I glared out across the landscape, although the distance was too great. I couldn’t see the source of my malice past the haze of the horizon. 

“Brigetta…” Karyna called hesitantly as she approached. 

I didn’t acknowledge her. The clatter of teeth strung on thin twine dangling from my clothes lifting with the wind was all that filled the space between us. 

“We’re ready to move…” she mumbled, rubbing her arm for something to do.

“Has Kári returned?”

“Yes.”

“And was he successful?”

She nodded, “The trap is set.”

I turned, letting the disdain I felt for the Fae dissipate as I focused on her. Too feral to be considered graceful in any traditional sense of the word, Karyna moves like a huntress. Each step deliberate, coiled with intent, and salacious. Lovely, even for a Vanir, her face is heart-shaped and dimpled. She has a curvaceous waist to hip ratio. Her breasts are as pale as eggshells and hypnotizingly full. They would have spilled from her top had her clothes not been so well tailored. Her smile comes easy and has a devilish radiance. Men would follow her off a cliff if she so beckoned them to do so, but she prefers the company of women.

I tilted her chin up with one hand, and gave the kind of soft smile I knew she needed. “Thank you for telling me. We will move tonight.”

Karyna startled when I touched her, and the blossom of hope suddenly filled her eyes. She was as easy to play as Eiríkr when he was a child, both of them lived for attention and praise. “You should come back to camp, eat something, and we could find somewhere to be alone…” she trailed off suggestively. 

Her charm ability radiated outward, infiltrating my senses and filling my head with lustful thoughts. It was hardly necessary. I would fuck her for the distraction any day. Where I might have once turned her away, the monster I had become was no longer interested in pretending to be moral, and rarely was it satisfied. Listening to her pant and moan was like hearing a cow moo–nothing special.

Without Eiríkr to guide my moral compass the needle spun circles, not caring which way was north or south so long as it was pointing to somewhere. It wasn’t as if I were unaware of my actions. I could plainly see the concern in Karyna’s eyes, her desperation to be loved, and I knew her feelings for me, I just couldn’t find it in me to care.

“No, you’ll just cry again.” I told her flatly, soured by her attempt.

Karyna recoiled from my touch, pushing my hand away with a scowl. “There’s no need to be a bitch.” 

I shrugged, “Well, it’s true.”

She glared back, her blue-green eyes flat with annoyance. I waited, expecting some kind of rebuttal, and when she gave none, I stepped past her to check final preparations.

Our encampment had more than doubled in size since Mercurisson was here to oversee it. From every direction came the bustle of training, and the rasp of blade against whetstone. Fires burned in a scattering of embers, tainting the fresh mountain air with the scent of smoke and roasting meat. Tents sprawled through the valley like a scar to the very edge of the forest, their guy ropes crisscrossing the trampled mud where boars and humans alike walked repetitive paths. 

Under Mercury’s rule we had led the attack on the Fae with only our warriors, Vanir. With only a third of our horde left after the battle and Katla’s betrayal, Mercurisson took a different approach. He sent for us to call on each of Mercury’s loyalist townships, and they answered in force. The human villagers swarmed like bees called to protect their hive, tidal waves of them swelled our army to almost eight thousand. We’d had to expand the barrier spell a handful of times to accommodate.

Any who could fight would train with the warriors, and those who could not would bolster our supply chains instead. Feverish and unsleeping with malice that could have scorched the earth, Mercurisson forged his campaign from the ashes of his father’s legacy in a matter of weeks. Now it’s up to me to ensure his plans fall into place.

I met Hrafn in the center of camp. His tall figure lumbered through the haze of smoke like a bear woken from hibernation too early. Dirt streaked his hair and face, and his hand reached for the back of my head as he pulled my face to his. We greeted one another with this touch of our foreheads wordlessly, holding there for a long moment before gradually releasing each other.

“You reached Tesoro?” I asked.

“Yes…” he stepped aside, gesturing through the smoke to the new edge of our boundary. 

A thousand or more new tents pressed to the very edge of our barrier, and a mirthful grin spread across my face. Katla would regret the day she killed Mercury. We had to eliminate her before we could rescue Eirikr, fighting the Fae and our family would have left us outmatched. Even with the residents of Tesoro bolstering our army. 

The humans would cushion the front lines and fall like blades of grass under the slash of swords, but they would wear down our enemies with every wave. 

Satisfied with the numbers, I stalked toward the smithery. No longer a single forge with a handful of workers, the workshop had expanded into an assembly line. A hot waft of raw materials blew back the hair from my face and I breathed in the tangy metallic scent of wear. The hiss of water evaporating into steam and clank of metal on metal filled the air. 

Smiths worked runes into their ironwork, creating arrows that would always hit, blades that wouldn’t shatter and edges that never dulled. The most skilled of them worked on our armor. The plating must be supple and strong enough to endure, polished like glass so that it doesn’t pinch our necks when we wear them. Perfection crafted by the hands of experts.

My orders were tall, I wanted every human and Vanir armed and armored by the weeks end. Hulnir, a sliver of man almost as delicate in appearance as Eirikr, worked on the throat guards. His thin hands and smooth fingers deceptively frail looking as he etched glyphs into the metal with his magic. The warrior lines under his skin were ashen grey, faded with age instead of vibrant black beneath his papery skin.

“Silvídóttir,” he addressed me formally with my patronymic name.

He didn’t look up as I came to a stop at the forefront of his workshop. “Have you completed the adjustments I requested?” 

His faded blue eyes slowly flicked in my direction, “Have I ever failed?” The edge to his voice was like ice down my back, but I didn’t flinch. There has always been something deeply unsettling about him, like a serpent pickled in a jar or an insect crammed into flesh, it’s hard to tell if he’s alive or dead. 

A wide smile cracked his face as I waited.

“Never one for small talk,” he withdrew with some small motion of embarrassment, smile fading, “The modifications are delicate work. Those I have completed are over there.”

Hulnir motioned with a lazy wave of his hand to the stacks of glossy metallic items on a low table across the room. I didn’t thank him. The furs across my shoulders lifted with a gust of snow washed air, and I grabbed one of the pieces. It scraped across the wooden table as I lifted it and hung like chainmail in my hand. 

The sleek plated metal, flexible and lightweight, is designed to protect our revenant point in battle. It trails down our spines and encapsulates the vulnerable point at the nape of our necks. This one had been modified to wrap around the front of our throats as well, like a necklace. Mercurisson had requested this design feature be added after watching his father be stabbed through his throat.

I clipped it in place around my neck, and flexed side to side to test the motion range. Unimpeded. It was perfect. He had been right about the practicality, and correct to choose Hulnir to make them, although it had taken years. I wished I could give one to my cousin now, to protect him.

Hooves outside the tent drew my attention, and I looked over to see Kari dismounting Yri. I thought I felt the temperature drop. His expression was as gray as the sky, blue-green eyes deep pools of under fading light and his hair fell around him like a mane. He wore one of the new throat guards, and similar plating positioned across his shoulders.

“Karyna told me we’re going after Katla first,” accusation laced his voice.

“Not here,” I warned just as coldly.  

I let the metal I was holding slide back onto the table, and exited the workshop to speak with him. His boar followed us as we walked through the camp, past rows of tents until we reached my private quarters. I pulled off my gloves one at a time, and settle a pot over the fire to boil water for tea.

“We have to go after Katla before we can face the Fae,” I began.

Kari fixed me with a stern glare, but spoke with measured calm. “Eiríkr is in the hands of our enemies.”

“And?”

“We should get him back first.”

“No.”

A flicker of agitation and the rumble of thunder from above betrayed his irritation. “Why not?” 

“Because that’s not the plan. Katla is the priority.”

“Who knows what the Fae are doing to him, Eiríkr’s life should come first,” he implored. 

I scoffed, what a whinny child. “His life is in no danger, the contract assures that.”

Kári remained unconvinced. 

“Do you know what he cares about most?” I tried a different tactic. “His father, Mercury is what mattered most to Mercurisson, he would be loathed if we let Katla escape.”

“She won’t escape. The blockades are in place, and the mountain pass is ready should she try to cross it. We should get Eiríkr.”

The pot over the fire boiled. 

Kári is weak of heart, he couldn’t understand, and to talk as if I didn’t want to have my littlest cousin back and safe with me… Hot rage clawed its way up my throat, but I swallowed it back down.

“Our plan remains unchanged. Katla must die first,” I stated with finality.

<-<-PREVIOUS CHAPTER | NEXT CHAPTER ->-> | CHAPTER LIST ₍^. .^₎⟆

Don't forget to put in the order form for your Christmas cards if you'd like one! You only have until the 1st of Nov!! >>Link to announcement post and rules for the Christmas Cards!<<