Her footsteps echoed on the varnished floor of the castle. The warmth of the torchlight was beginning to make her sweat. Even the cold mountain of Cerise had summers and they were nearing the apex of one. She looked out one of the windows and saw the trees lining the mountain, the birds that flew the skies and the life of this world.
Crossing the hallway through the castle she stopped in front of the large wooden doors that were always guarded by soldiers. They were to be the first and last line of defense to her Queen’s chambers and thus Morrigan respected them.
She bowed to them and they nodded slowly. They dragged their spears away and the door opened with hands unseen. Her Majesty’s power was not something she understood entirely but it was not something that she felt the need to question either. She was merely a knight in Her service.
But as she crossed the threshold of the door the throne room fell away into ruins. The pillars crumbled, the carpet burned, the flames died and the silence deafened. A snow filled wind blew over her almost throwing her off her feet and she hissed her eyes burning to red. Lowering her arms she stared at the empty throne.
The back had been shattered, the arms had been chewed away and spat at the floor. Some of the legs were broken and it was barely standing. Morrigan approached the throne and touched one of the arms and it crumbled to pieces. She felt something in her heart crack as well and she looked away trying to force herself to breathe.
She jerked her hand back and turned around to tear her gaze away from the throne. The wind buffeted at her back, she stared at a woman approaching the throne room. She wore a velvet red dress that covered all but the dark skin of her clavicle. But her face was nothing short of beautiful. Low angled large red eyes, a small round nose, thick red lips, and high cheeks bones. She had short black hair that rested at the edges of her cheeks but moved and swayed with her steps. She had dusky brown skin that glowed with a redness from the inside.
The woman walked toward Morrigan and she walked with the heir of someone who couldn’t possibly be human. No mortal woman walked with the grace and power of her. She was so struck she hadn’t noticed her surroundings. The walls around the pair of them had been dragged away, replaced with the empty blackness of a night sky.
Morrigan stared at this woman and didn’t know what to say or do. She had never seen a woman so striking, so powerful, so entrancing. No that was not true. Only once before had she seen someone like that. As she approached the recognition started to click into place but was at war with her own disbelief.
“It has been a very long time since I’ve laid eyes on you,” the woman said. She had a warm voice like liquid heat but cooled under the hands of time. Tired but still holding an edge of humor. A voice that echoed in her heart so fervently that Morrigan fell to her knees gripping the ground.
“Please. If this is some cruel dream do not allow me to awaken from it,” she said forcefully staring at the ground so as to not see her face again. “Please do not let this be some cruel nightmare.”
The woman approached Morrigan and stood in front of her. She then crouched, taking Morrigan’s face in her hands, and made her lookup. She expected the woman’s face to have morphed into some sort of creature but instead, those warm red eyes rested on her again and she melted, her jaw shaking and eyes watering.
“You look well my dear knight,” she said softly. “I worried how you would fair with my passing.”
Morrigan’s tears rolled down her cheeks and she fought to stop them. She shut her eyes and looked away as she forced herself to be composed. “I am. I am well. I have found a way to survive. How are you here my Queen? This must be a dream but you speak to me as if you are really here.”
“Because I am here Morrigan. This is a dream and it is not a dream,” she held out a hand and Morrigan took it. She pulled her to her feet and motioned to the nexus of stars around them. “This place is what I’ve called home a long time ago. Many many years ago. When I was first created.”
“Because you are a Goddess?” Morrigan asked. The Queen of Cerise looked at her knight and she wasn’t surprised but she was amused.
“You have been educated on things beyond mortal matters,” She said quietly but smiled. “I often thought of telling you the truth. But I knew my knight.”
“Such matters didn’t concern me and wouldn’t have helped me to serve You.”
She laughed, “Indeed my knight.” She stopped laughing though and sighed. “My power wasn’t enough to truly protect my people.”
“No, my Queen. Many of us survived the Calamity. Communities are forming. Your legacy remains. We are splintered and weekend but not gone.”
“That is comforting to hear,” she said. “I felt my time nearing it’s end.”
“My Queen. You speak as if you knew that you were going to die,” Morrigan said hesitantly.
“I did. If not then, then soon. It would not have been my first.”
“I don’t understand. I’ve read the history of Cerise. You’ve been in its pages for centuries. Leading our people through prosperity and hardship. How could you have died before then?”
“It is as you said Morrigan. I am a God.”
“But God’s cannot die.”
She chuckled again, “Who says that my knight?”
Morrigan started to say something but she couldn’t because she couldn’t argue with her. For all she knew Gods were no different from them and were just long lived instead of truly immortal.
“Relax my knight. I can see the wheels turning in your mind. And instead of letting you guess I will tell you. I and my siblings were created by a pair of Gods that do not reside in this land. My brothers continue to war with each other over their differences in the ongoing battle of the Sanctum and Noria. My sister continues to call the desert her home wishing to be forgotten by all except those she calls her own.
“But I lived within my castle directly amongst my people and lead them. But an immortal body does not exist, at least not in a way that was satisfactory. Eventually my body would grow old or violence and war would take my life. And I would be forced to take a new host,” she said softly. “I will be born and grow and eventually take the throne again. Usually I would cultivate that new child in the waning days of my life.”
“Cultivate?”
She nodded again, “It is like taking a part of myself and letting it go free into the world. And then that part will grow and become almost like a second part of myself. Myself and that other will find each other. I would raise them properly and eventually my soul would finish the transference and I would continue to rule. However sometimes things are interrupted.”
“Like the Calamity,” Morrigan said and she nodded. “But the Ouroboros. They took Your body.”
“Yes, they did. And it’ll make some things more difficult,” she scowled. “That woman has been someone that I believe should have been dealt with a long time ago. Perhaps it is folly to have not hunted her down myself and ended her threat before it could have expanded. Or hubris to believe I could have. But that brings me your role to play my Knight. You can help to turn the tide of things.”
Morrigan’s head was aching in many ways at all of this information, some new and some rehashed but never spoken, “How my Queen?”
“I cannot prevent the Ouroboros from reviving me and using me as a conduit to fuel their magic. But I can limit what they are allowed to harness.”
“How would I help You do that?”
“By allowing this bit of my soul to reside within you,” she motioned toward her slowly. “Until this conflict can be ended and my new body born I will rest within you. Of course that will bring some new abilities and power to you. I will help you learn and understand them as much as I am able.”
“What?” Morrigan blinked slowly and shook her head. “But what if something were to happen to me? You would be lost. Forever. I couldn’t take being the cause of that.”
The Queen rolled her eyes slowly and pointed at Morrigan. That single finger brought Morrigan to a halt. She blinked slowly feeling like a child embarrassed under the gaze of her guardian, She dropped to her knees and bowed her head deeply. “Do you question my judgment Morrigan?”
She blinked slowly and shook her head, “Never my Queen.”
“Do you think I cannot evaluate my subjects?”
“Never my Queen.”
“I have chosen you my Knight to carry the will of our entire people. My entire people. You are a powerful knight and I have not had one with resolve and dedication such as you. You have found not just a place to belong but a family. You know in your heart again what it’s like to protect and love. Your heart did not close itself off and instead opened further. You will not fail this task I am giving you.”
Morrigan nodded her head, resolving herself. She felt a hand on her shoulder and another on her cheek. She looked up at her Queen and the warmth there made her blush. She looked down and smiled to herself. And suddenly her Queen was embracing her, hugging her tightly. Morrigan gasped going still.
“It has been a long time since I’ve had a knight in my service such as you. In many ways you remind me of myself, a very long time ago. And I am glad that I was able to find you when I did. More so that you did not end your own life and grew to become who you are now.”
Morrigan wrapped her arms around her Queen holding her tightly and felt the warmth of the woman inside her like a flame. And then she was gone. In her place a dark red flame rested in her hands. Morrigan stared into the depths of that blood fire and pulled it closer to herself. Shuddering she felt it enter her body almost like stabbing herself.
Morrigan blinked her eyes open and gasped staring at the tent ceiling. She panted, her forehead moist. She looked at the empty spot on the bed that Alistair usually occupied. It was going on the fourth day since he left and she missed him greatly. On the other side of her though was Benidict. Her sudden movement had awoken him and he looked at her groggily.
“Mori what is it?” he asked softly and then looked far more alert. “Your eyes. Is something wrong?”
“What’s wrong with my eyes?” she asked.
“They’re red. Not quite as bright as the blood lust I’ll admit but this is. Odd.” He finally said. He touched the side of her face lightly and frowned. “They feel so very familiar. Where have I seen eyes like that?”
Morrigan stared at him and then pressed a hand to her chest. She felt the heat in her chest and when she pressed her hand flat against her chest she felt something like a second heartbeat in the echo of her own. It had worked. She looked at Benidict and before she could even talk to him as well she sensed him before he arrived.
“Dear Morrigan and Benidict. A moment of your time I beget.”
Morrigan looked at Benidict in confusion but connected the dots to herself, “Gest.” She said and for a moment her own voice didn’t register in her ears as her own. It was deeper, carrying but colored with an accent. Even Benidict looked at her surprised. “It’s very early jester. What do you want?”
“A plenty easier to glean if it is seen,” he replied again.
“I do not like the way this jester speaks,” Benidict said. “It gets old fast.”
“I cannot know if he’s cursed or just quirky,” she said and both exchanged glances at the strangeness of her voice. “But something tells me he won’t abandon this plea.”
“Are you sure you’re okay Mori? Something feels. Different about you.”
She didn’t know why but she knew that they had to go out and see what Gest was going to reveal. “Yes I am. To both queries.”
“Okay. For his sake I hope it’s good. Without Al here, I find myself annoyed already.”
“As do I.”
Benidict kissed her and then went to find clothes to wear. She did the same and she reached toward her katana. Her hand hovered over it and she hesitated before picking it up. The weapon hummed in her hand in a way that it never had before. Strapping it to her waist she watched Benidict do the same with his longsword and nodded to her.
Then they went to the flap to greet the masked tight wearing jester. Not seeing his face was somewhat unsettling but no more so than when they first met him. He was after all one of them, a distant cousin at best though. The jester stared at Morrigan taking a sudden step back. His mask hid any emotion he may have felt but Morrigan sensed something in his person that she could not place.
He bowed to her and said, “Thank you for hearing me out. Outside of the city are the whereabouts.”
Prancing backwards he spun around and marched leading them forward. Morrigan scowled slightly but fell into step behind the jester. It was always interesting to Morrigan how active the Free City constantly was. No matter the time of the day people were drinking, eating, talking, selling and going on and on.
Morrigan had kept an eye on Benidict, watching him trying to understand what was bothering him but she had a hard time paying attention because she felt it inside her. The heat rushing through her veins, the power inside her chest. She felt different and the same. She felt whole in a way that she’d only felt in the presence of her Queen.
The trio of Cersians went toward one of the gates. The guard acknowledged his request after seeing Morrigan and they walked to the desert. Instead of the deep sand it was mostly dry ground and tufts of grass. Gest continued forward and slowed down glancing at the two of them. “I know that my request could be met with some stress. But there are some of our kind who’d wish to pay you mind.”
Benidict glanced at the moon in the sky and then raised his eyebrow at that comment, “Some of our kind?”
“Are you meaning Cersians?” Morrigan asked quickly.
“Cersians were found. The battle against despair they have won,” he said and bowed.
Benidict and Morrigan exchanged quick glances before staring at the assassin. Somehow the cheer of his every step was there and he produced a harmonica from a pocket in his tights. He played a few notes to try and tune it and then began to play it slowly a soft and haunting melody. They warned the two knights with a familiarity that they had nearly forgotten.
“What do you make of this one Mori?” Benidict asked watching Gest stumble backward under the sway of his tunes.
“What do you mean?”
“He’s an odd one but I’ve heard the stories of Her Majesty keeping strange warriors to be Her weapons in the dark. But this one seems to have lost any semblance of sanity with Her death. Rumor was that all of the Harlequin were that way.”
“That was my thought toward this one as well but,” Morrigan continued to watch him as he moved. “He has survived this long. His skills are intact. And that girl. Ryza. She’s got a good head on her shoulders and Orion, too pragmatic to suffer a fool. If both of them traveled together with him then he is likely an ally we can use.”
“Pragmatic thinking as always Mori,” Benidict frowned keeping an eye trained on Gest. “But who or what is he thinking of introducing us to now. We’re in the middle of the desert.”
“There are some who could find us,” she said and gasped in realization. “I know this tune. It’s from the performance. The Long Road Home.”
She listened to the song that Gest played, taking her back to the court of Cerise. Back to a performance amongst the nobles, the servants and guest. Watching the talents unfold in front of her. A stillness came over her hearts as they relaxed into the security of home. But more so because the music echoed in her mind across many years, years that she knew were not her own.
As the music played paper birds began to descend from the sky. Like birds fluttering down and landing in the sand. And then the cast appeared, replacing the birds as if they had been there the entire time. Gest finished playing and bowed deep, bent all the way over as the masked assassins came forward.
Their leader, the troupe master, stood ahead of them all and did a bow with a flourish of his arms, “It seems that this wayward jester has found his way to a true home. Sanguiknights of Her Majesty. A rare sight in this day and age.”
“One of my Queen’s many performers,” Morrigan said. “And your entire cast. Where have you been hiding all this time?”
“In the shadows where we are needed,” he replied. “Waiting for a sign of Her Majesty’s will to be wrought.”
“And have you found a sign in all this time?” Benidict asked fighting the urge to sneer.
“A sign no. But fleeting words. Subtle motions. Whispers on the wind. And after running into him a few moons ago we are led here to you. Her Majesty’s will is still in motion.”
Turning away from Benidict he stared at Morrigan closer this time and it was as if he were struck. He stumbled backward staring at her and then dropped to his knees and bowed to her. “I did not know. I was foolish to have not realized sooner. Please your Majesty forgive me.”
Morrigan stared at the assassin calmly despite the strange sense of panic that engulfed her heart. And she breathed and that panic was quieted as the cool air passed over the second heart in her chest.
Benidict looked at the Harlequin first but then stared at Morrigan, “Why do I get the feeling you know what they’re talking about Mori?”
“Yes, Ben I do.” She looked at Benidict and then at the Harlequin. “Rise Harlequin. It’s time to make use of you once again.”
The Harlequin Library 