Lesbians Kill the Demon Queen etc Ch 14

“Again,” Zelle commanded softly, their calm eyes reflecting the dim lamplight.

Silently, Byron nodded, and took a slow, deep breath to relax himself. His eyes shut tight, and he focused his mind on one singular goal. Deep within him, Byron sensed an energy stir, rising up from a part of himself that he knew was there, but which he couldn’t get a feel for. It built slowly, coming up from that place and beginning to soak into his body proper. For a moment, he felt strong, alert, powerful, then it was gone. Byron slumped forward, shaking his head. “Nothing,” he sighed, failing to mask the disappointment in his quivering words.

A reassuring hand lay upon his shoulder, and Byron glanced up to meet Zelle’s; despite his inability, they were smiling. “Not nothing; I saw a spark, for just a moment. That was close.”

“Close won’t cut it, I need to learn to control it.” The incident with Thread had left Byron shaken by the anger he’d felt, the desire to harm. More and more he couldn’t get how that had felt out of his head. More and more Byron wondered if he was a danger to those around him.

“We have time, and we’ve been at this a long time; get yourself some water.” Zelle was right about that. The two of them had been practicing for a solid two hours by that point, the entirety of their quiet journey over the demon border. The cart they were being transported in was not particularly luxurious, but was at least spacious, and lent some protection from the elements. Protection from the elements and from the… ‘horses’ which were providing transportation.

Bluntly, Byron had never seen a horse so large. Regardless, his cursory knowledge of the world which seemed to have cemented into his mind suggested horses were typically not ten feet tall. Coincidentally, they also typically didn’t have silver, lion-like manes or glowing ram’s horns, nor did they tend to have shining golden cat-eyes. They were fucked up, almost as unnerving as regular horses. Either way, he was pleased that his rather unpleasant journey hadn’t been made unpleasant by having to see the weird, intimidating creatures.

He took solace in the fact that Zelle was equally unnerved by the beasts, hearing them mutter something about not being suited for life outside the city as they clambered into the back. It didn’t take long for the two to decide their little journey by cart would be an apt opportunity to study Byron’s power in relative privacy. The word relative was important, but Thread, who needed the room to lay out and stretch his bad leg, was at worst an extra, silent pair of eyes, hardly a distraction or unwelcome intrusion. Kesh and Nina had stayed at the front of the cart; Kesh, to keep an eye on the road and discuss business with their escorts, and Nina because she found the creatures fascinating.

Leaning against his palms, and glancing out the back of the cart, Byron watched the dark, craggy cliffs they had departed from grow ever smaller in the silvery moonlight. “How much longer do you think we’ll be on the road?” he asked, glancing toward Zelle, who was hurriedly scribbling notes in a ragged journal.

They glanced up, tapped their chin thoughtfully, and shrugged. “Kesh said we would arrive before dawn, but little else. That leaves us probably anywhere between one and four hours more of travel.”

Byron tilted his head back in frustration, lightly tapping it against the cart’s wall as he stared up blankly at the tarp overhead. “And how much more of this,” he limply gestured to their notebook, then mimed a burst of energy ring from deep within himself, “do you want?”

“Hey,” Zelle called softly. “Just take a break, alright? In a few hours, we’ll be in a nice, cozy little town where we can get some good rest. A few days of warm beds and hot meals while Kesh and Nina make arrangements with the governor sounds nice, right?”

“It does,” Byron conceded with a nod and an exhausted exhalation. “We’re sure he can get us to Selian?”

“Not at all,” Zelle grinned, shrugging. “But it’s the best idea we have. If it doesn’t work out we’ll find another way.”

“I guess that’ll have to do.” Absent-mindedly, Byron moved to remove the ring Zelle had given him at the beginning of their cart-trip.

“Leave that on, will you?” Zelle asked. “I’ll need it active next time you manage to shift into your demon form.”

He stared down at the silver ring, turning it over with his thumb and forefinger. “What does this thing do, exactly?”

Stretching, Zelle sat up from their position slumping over their journal, and launched into an explanation. “Simple, at least, from an artificer’s perspective. I think I’ve mentioned before, to think of your demon form as an untrained muscle, yes?” When their comments were meant only with a blank stare, they shook their head. “Hmm, I guess not, my mistake. Either way, it’s a good way to conceive of the basic idea. Once you do manage to transform, that ring will basically record it, and help make using that ‘muscle’ a lot easier. Make sense?”

“I suppose so. I’m just not fond of feeling like an experiment.” Thoughtfully, they continued to twist the ring about on their finger, watching the way the light caught the shining silver.

“I can understand why you might feel that way,” Zelle murmured. “But Byron, we’re all on the same side here.”

“Even after what happened with Thread?” he asked.

“Trust me, every one of us has some dark spots in our story.” Carefully, Zelle traced a scar that ran the length of their left forearm, their eyes distant and contemplative.

“All of you? I can certainly believe that with you and Kesh. Seems like you’ve both been fighting this fight a long time. And Thread, well, no offense, but you’ve got some kind of spooky vibes to you.” Out of the corner of his eye, Byron saw Thread shrug nonchalantly. “But Nina? She’s young, maybe even younger than I am, very bright, too.”

Soft laughter echoed through the cart as Zelle gently shook their head. “Nina’s a sweetheart, but she has stories. Ask her about Ossos sometime. She’s from there. Technically nobility, if I’m not mistaken.”

“Ossos, that’s east, right?” Considering he was going to need to make a life for himself assuming he survived all this, Byron was doing his best to make some attempt to familiarize himself with the world.

Zelle nodded. “Yeah, Selian’s territory is between us and them.” They paused for a moment, eyeying Byron. “You’re deflecting, though. Say what’s on your mind.”

Continuing to idly twist the ring about, Byron thought for a moment about Zelle’s words, and his companions’ fraught pasts compared to his own predicament. “You talk about the trouble that’s behind you, things in your past you might not be proud of. The thing is, Zelle, you all have those pasts to draw from, to look upon and say ‘This is how I was, it’s not who I am now.’ I don’t have that, I only have the here and now. And in the here and now, there’s something I don’t understand, a power that I lost control of which almost caused me to hurt a friend. That’s different than having some stains on your record. You can change; I’m scared this might just be who I am.”

Thoughtful quiet fell over the pair, Zelle tapping their knuckles against the floor as they nodded slowly and rhythmically. Just as a response seemed to coalesce in their head, however, the cart stopped suddenly with a sharp cry from the horses. Stricken with sudden alertness, Zelle bolted upright, then slid to the front and poked their head through the tarp. Byron trailed after them, straining his ears to hear their conversation.

“What’s going on?” Zelle asked hurriedly, then gasped. In the quiet that followed, Byron could hear distant screams. Hurriedly, Zelle scrambled to pull a pair of binoculars from their pouch, and peered at some distant sight for several tense moments before sinking backward, and leaning against the wall of the cart.

“What is it?” Even as he asked, he could see Zelle was far too occupied to properly answer. They were hunched over, digging through their bag and setting aside an arrangement of vials, weapons and presumably enchanted artifacts; they gave a slight nod toward the front of the cart, and set back to work sorting through their things. With a wordless nod, Byron crawled to the front of the cart and poked his head through the tarp. The cart had stopped at an overlook, where the tight canyon walls had given way to a fertile valley below. Rolling, grassy hills stretched beyond the horizon, cradling acre upon acre of farmland. What caught Byron’s eye most of all, however, was the mid-sized township nestled at the valley’s base, and, more importantly, the fact that it was in the process of burning to the ground.

In the blazing light, Byron could see distant silhouettes clashing and fleeing among the flames. Before he could so much as ask what was happening, the leader of their escort, who flanked the cart on horseback, drew closer to the cart, addressing Kesh and the demon soldier driving the cart. “We need to get down there as soon as possible.” He fixed his gaze upon Kesh. “Is your group with us? Or do we part ways here?”

“This town is the only lead we have on an inroad to Selian. We’re not getting off here.” Kesh spoke with stern, commanding certainty as he turned to face Byron. “Ready yourself, Byron. Things are going to get dangerous, and fast.” Without another word, Kesh nodded to the driver, who snapped the reins, as the horses drawing the cart took off into a gallop. The cart lurched, throwing Byron backward onto his back; he shook his head and sat up, quickly snatching his bag and donning the light chain shirt, half-helm, and leggings he had been provided. As the cart roared down the hillside, the thundering of hooves and creaking of the wheels growing nearly deafening, Byron could hear the sounds of battle growing ever louder as it rose above the din.

The air around him was getting hot; the wind had picked up, carrying the smell of ash and death with it. What was he doing out here? He wasn’t cut out for this. Despite being thrust into life or death situation after life or death situation, Byron couldn’t bottle his panic. When had his breath quickened so dramatically? Byron didn’t even know who he was and he was going to meet his end on some strange, foreign battlefield for a cause he didn’t even understand. The only people who would even know to remember him would die with him.

“Look at me, Byron.” Zelle’s sharp, commanding voice pierced the screaming voice of fear within him. His gaze snapped up, Byron focusing on their calm determination. “We’re in this together, okay? Just follow Kesh, Nina and me. My guess is Kesh is going to want to head straight for the governor’s manor; we need him alive so he can set up a meeting with Selian. And hey, if we pull this off, we’ll be heroes. She’ll be that much more amenable to us. So just stick with us, okay? We’re in this together.” They paused, silently watching Byron for any signs that he even heard them. “Can you take a deep, slow breath for me?” they asked; Byron nodded, and complied. “Good, now, you have the ring on. It’s going to help you, okay? You’re strong in that demon form of yours. We can do this, okay?” This time they didn’t have to wait, Byron was already giving a shaky nod.

“Do you,” he took a moment to swallow hard, and steady his breathing once more. “Do you know what’s going on? Who are we even about to fight?”

“Could be someone from Ossos; they would certainly have reason to pillage Selian’s townships,” Thread offered; he’d been silent since things had escalated. Byron had almost forgotten Thread was there at all.

“This far west? No. Besides, if Ossos really was sending deployments this far out then surely Nina’s informants would have heard about it and told her. Besides—” Befire Zelle could continue, a deafening explosion rocked the earth mere feet away from the racing cart, shaking the entire frame.

“Everyone alright back there?” Kesh called from the front, barely audible over the ever approaching roar of battle.

“I think so,” Zelle shouted ahead, glancing about to confirm. They scrambled forward to snatch a bag of powder which had begun to slide toward the back of the cart, then righted themself and sighed before continuing their thought. “As I was saying. When I was up front with my binoculars,” they began, “I glimpsed two banners. The town is being defended by demon soldiers bearing the same insignia as our friends here, a crescent moon. The attackers, though, their insignia is a venom-tipped spear, which means—”

“Both sides in this fight are demons. That or one side stole a banner from the other.” Midway through climbing into the cart’s rear, Nina had seen fit to interrupt Zelle. She slid through the gap, sat next to her pack, and began readying herself for battle as she continued. “And the spear insignia means they aren’t just any demons, either. That’s an old insignia. It used to denote some of Selian’s meanest, nastiest shock troops back when the war was at its bloodiest. They were elite, close to the queen, and fiercely loyal. She’d send them in to terrorize key enemy positions. Why they’re attacking one of her own townships is beyond me. Perhaps they’re upset Selian stopped using them a couple decades back when she decided to take a… gentler approach to warfare.”

“Doesn’t really matter why, what matters is who. This won’t be pretty. Be ready, be smart, keep together, yeah?” Zelle looked each of their companions in the eye. “We can do th—”

A second explosion rocked the cart, catching the rear right wheel and sending it toppling end over end. In blind desperation, Byron struggled for something, anything to hold on to, then he was airborne, and the ground was approaching fast. There was a loud crash, a sudden burst of pain, then darkness.

When Byron came to, he could only see blurred, muddled shapes. The blazing light of flame was all around him, heat licked at his cheeks. Muffled sounds rumbled all around him as he slowly took stock of his situation. His back hurt, his leg, too; he was on his side. With great effort, he rolled himself onto his hands and knees, then sat up, looking around. They had landed in the midst of a burning plaza. Before him, he could see the shattered stone of a once opulent fountain, still spraying water that now trickled over rubble, and ran across the body of a dead soldier. In the distance, shadowy figures ran back and forth through winding streets. Out of the corner of his eye, Byron caught a glimpse of Kesh slowly getting to his feet, then helping Zelle up as Nina dragged Thread across the cobblestone while he aimed a flintlock pistol at some distant, shadowy figure.

Behind him, Byron heard the thudding of boots. A tall, armored figure stood before him, brandishing a spear. It reared back, making ready to thrust.  Behind him, Byron heard the muffled cry of Kesh crying out to him in fear. His eyes fell upon the sharp, glistening point. The way the flames played off the silvery metal made it appear to glow orange in the darkness all around. ‘I’m going to die here, now,’ Byron thought to himself. Something stirred deep within him, like a muscle he didn't really know how to use yet flexing tself. Power flooded every cell in his body. Warmth, strength, courage, ferocity, elation. With a rumbling growl, Byron rose to his feet.