Red Moon Rising
Chapter 14: Dripping Shadows and Quivering Light
I never feel the floor, but I do feel myself being lifted off of it by two warm sets of hands. My whole body aches and tingles – especially my back – but that starts to feel better as a warm, rolling mist spreads its way over my body. “A little of this, Lucia, and you’ll be able to move again . . . Sorry I had to go a little overkill on ya, but Quillspawn filled you with a lot of ink.”
“Ink . . .? Oh right . . . my back . . . Sorry about that, I didn’t even remember . . .” A fingertip presses to my lips as they close, and for a moment I forget that it’s not my finger, it just feels like it. Being shushed by your own finger attached to someone’s hand is a strange feeling.
“You’ve been through a lot lately, your memory isn’t going to be perfect. To be honest, after The Lady aimed a gun at you I’m a little surprised you’re sane as you are. Even with all of the help that Lida gave me I think seeing Jesse hold a gun on me, prepared to fire . . . I might have just wanted for her to fire.” It’s also strange to groggily blink your eyes awake and want to comfort your own sad face that isn’t yours. Didn’t I already feel like that once today? I don’t know. I might just need the cliff notes after all of this is over.
Somewhere in the universe, there has to be some deity that a twisted entity like Quillspawn would worship, writing down all of the fucked up events in my life. Perhaps, if I ask really nicely, she’ll drop me a few hints.
The mist feels like it’s cradling me from inside as their bodies hold me from without. I’ve never felt so completely held before, as if even my thoughts are being lovingly cradled. It must be Valerie’s mist as it soothes away the pain in my back and all through . . . wherever my sparks flow. Veins? No clue.
I try to sit up on my own to pull away from them, but my body still feels just a little bit too weak. It’s getting better every second, but not enough of those seconds have gone by. Hooray for feeling pitiful.
Fingertips caress my face and I sigh at the way the mist grows stronger. I really need to find Olivia and get her the hell out of here. She’s only here because of me. She’s not a witch. She doesn’t turn gold because she’s descended from some footnote of Greek myth. She had a mother and a father, which is more than even Valerie can say. Lida said Valerie’s family line was one like ours, but even still the Nesatealia didn’t hunt her down.
Maybe if we can stop them here I’ll finally be making the world that much better of a place. More bad things can happen, but there won’t be any more redheaded witches going around taking whatever they want without any reprisal. Yanta alone had been doing it for five hundred years . . .
“Open your eyes, Lucia. You should be feeling better now, I can feel your sparks starting to wake up. If I keep this up much more you might get a little too misty.” Valerie’s bedside manner is wonderful as always. Gale might have a healing touch, but Valerie is the woman who brought me back from the brink of death. Maybe that wasn’t a coincidence.
The first thing I see are her beautiful violet eyes still lightly pulsing from the expenditure of mist. “My amethyst angel, saving me again huh? Sorry about the whole, my body being used against you thing. I guess in a way we’re even, huh?”
“I guess so . . . Was even the same woman sort of.” Valerie caresses my cheek one more time before her hand pulls away and I sigh far more than I should. I wish there were a way to turn feelings off.
Sarah eases to her feet and holds her hands down toward both of us. “Come on, up! We’re sitting in the middle of Nesatealia Station, and the train to Red Town has to be coming soon. I don’t get the feeling this spell is supposed to take days, or they would have come after you instead of waiting for you to try and grab up Yana. Then again this- no! No, I can tell from that look in your eyes you’ve already been thinking too much. We can’t both be over thinking all of this . . . We need to get going.”
I take her hand and stumble to my feet. It’s easier to stand than I was afraid it would be, and the effects of Valerie’s mist are melting away much quicker than I would have thought. Things are looking up, even if all that means is that I can move and think on my own.
“You’re the only one of us who has been here before, so if you have any clue where we should go . . .” Sarah makes a pitiful clueless motion before helping Valerie the rest of the way to her feet with a soft tug.
Places like this, especially chambers with a good four ways to choose from, have the problem of looking identical. I was barely even thinking with my locked up inky mind before they sent me back home, so those memories aren’t much help. One of these ways has to lead to Olivia, but I have no clue which. I try to intuit by imagining her love reaching out to me, but I’m not telepathic. I am a little telepathetic, though, standing here in the middle of the room with my hands on my forehead—as if that’ll help.
Of all of the powers in the world, I had to get the ability to see with a floodlight in my face instead of the ability to find my wife in some witch shrine. Some deity out there has a sense of humor, and if they have any relation to Pallas, or me, I hope they choke. Not choke to death, just a little on some spit.
“I’m going to have to say . . .” Both of my arms raise up over my head, and the right one feels heavier first. I let it drop and point to the left. “That way.”
Valerie and Sarah both stare at me disbelievingly, though Sarah is only faking it. I wonder how many times she’s made up some random method to choose a direction. For some reason, it just feels the right way to go. A few seconds ago and I probably would have chosen the direction right in front of me if only for the ease of it.
Neither of them seems to have a better idea, so I walk that direction and get a good look down that hallway before turning to face them. “Come on. Splitting up is a major no-no, so let’s just take this way for awhile. If you have a better idea, I’m perfectly willing to listen.”
“Seems as good a choice as any.” Valerie steps towards me, and Sarah grins before following right along. It feels nice to be the leader again. I just might have to form my own hypnotic league of heroines.
The dues could be paid in mental favors!
Putting that thought aside for now, I continue to step down the corridor. Not too far down there’s a blind turn, but at least there’s only one direction. I send a spark around the turn ahead of us, and when nothing falls even after I have it move all around where any ambushers would be happy to wait, we continue. There’s nothing and no one there, but this hallway does feel familiar. I can’t quite put my finger on why, but it does.
Around the bend is more of the same. More of the stone floor that clicks with every step, more red, more . . . absolutely nothing to tell us that we’re going in the right direction. Yana had been my focus too much for me to care where we were going. Did we take any turns from the chamber that held Olivia?
They might have moved by now anyway. If the ceremony is nearing completion . . . what was that Yunru or Yonva had said? Red would want to see Lida? It’s such a big blur.
Soft whimpers start to echo from down the hall, and I feel my body instantly tense. They’re familiar, but something about them sounds wrong or different in a way that I can’t seem to place. “Okay, either we’re going in the right direction, or the absolute worst direction. Anyone who thinks we should turn around now, feel perfectly free to say so . . .”
For good measure I slide a few sparks from my fingertips and keep them in front of us as the whimpers turn to groans. “We’ve come this far, Silver Girl. Only seems right to see where this leads.” Sarah’s voice sounds encouraging, but just as worried as mine.
With a nod I continue to lead us forward, and every step closer makes those sounds of pleasure all the sweeter. In the distance I can see someone, kneeling naked, with someone else standing above them . . . behind them. The woman standing has black hair. Quillspawn. There’s not another Nesatealia with black hair, even if that body is one she’s borrowing.
I can’t tell who the woman kneeling is, but there are few people it could be that wouldn’t make this a bad thing. “Quillspawn is down there. I never got much chance to have a team working with me for something like this, so I’m sorry I can’t give a lot of good advice. We need to overwhelm her, and free Silhouette as quickly as we can. If Olivia is down there, incapacitating her before unlocking her mind would be the best bet. You don’t want to feel how hard a fist made of gold hits.”
“Gotcha. I think we can take out one witch with three to one odds, not counting any enslaved allies. I’ll follow your lead . . . My experience with a group effort that wasn’t part of an evil space station went pretty well, and we played most of it by ear.” Valerie must mean the time she and Sarah took down the auction house before I could. They did a damned good job, too.
I look back to Sarah to see if she has anything to add, but she just shakes her head and grins. Not waiting for another word, I run to build up a momentum before igniting my body with sparks. Flying in to the rescue is much more dramatic, and it’s one hell of a lot quicker, too.
Keeping my arms at my sides kills what could be a much more heroic image, but my eyes can launch sparks just as well as my fingertips. I have to remember things like that. It might be all I’ve got.
The open double door at the end of the hallway starts to close as we get closer, and Quillspawn’s black lips twist in a dark grin. I try to move faster, but that is one benefit that Sylvia has over flight. Just because I can fly doesn’t mean that I can do it quickly. I reach the door just in time to slide between, but only barely. Any slower and she might have gotten my ankles.
Kneeling at Quillspawn’s feet is Yana. Her blonde hair looks darker for some reason, not for a change in color as much as light perhaps having been drawn from the strands. Her skin seems somehow paler. Touching down on the ground I turn to see no one holding the door closed, but I can hear Valerie and Sarah struggling to get it open. It looks like I’m going to have to take care of this particular challenge all on my own.
Goody.
Quillspawn’s ink black eyes gaze into mine, and I scowl as her grin widens. “You caught me amidst preparation for Red’s welcoming ceremony. Yana is by blood a Nesatealia, for all of her obvious faults . . . She deserves to see Red. If desired, she is going to be my tribute, as a matter of fact . . . I have a much better host body now after all.”
“It was a lot better without you in it.” My fingertips start to sizzle as I draw my sparks into them. I can’t make a move that obvious, but if she expects it of me then I can use that against her. “And leave Yana alone! You were a part of her once, and frankly, without her, you don’t deserve to be much of anything.”
Sarah and Valerie keep pounding on the door, but I have the feeling that’s not going to do them a lot of good. The look on my inky opponent’s face tells me this is precisely how she wanted our last encounter to be.
I cast off my silver glow with a sigh. Keeping my eyes on Quillspawn I search for Olivia or Lida with my peripheral vision. No luck. Either they’re not here, or I just can’t see them. Invisibility is not a trick that I would put past her, though admittedly it is a little away from her usual motif. After all, there’s not much about writing or ink that has to do with not being visible. Subtlety, maybe, but not invisibility.
“Silhouette was a woman twisted far before I ever took residence. She dwelled in shadows, and in a lost dream. She loved being your kitten, that I didn’t change. She might have even agreed to help the weak me that I was before if it could return her to that life, to being your little shadow kitty . . . Even now, the sight of her makes what little of her that remains tremble.” She smirks while lightly petting Yana’s hair. Her eyes seem dead and empty, making her parted lips seem even more disturbingly sexy. “I don’t need to describe Yana.”
“No, you don’t, Q.S. However, you do need to stop me from frying you into a puddle of witch-goo, which I assume you have a plan for.” I glance behind me at the door that doesn’t even seem to be reacting to my friend’s attempts to bust it open. “But before we settle that, where are Olivia and Lida?”
Quillspawn sighs and waves her hand dismissively before making the same motion against the side of Yana’s head. The impact causes Yana to let out the faintest of whimpers before she crumples helplessly to the floor. Her eyelids flutter as she faintly squirms, drawing my gaze just for a moment. It would be a pleasant sight, the smooth cheeks of her ass glistening with a faint layer of sweat, and the smooth shapes of her breasts squishing in new ways against the stone floor as she shifts, if only it weren’t true loss of self in her eyes.
With all of the loathing her former alter ego feels for her, I can only imagine whatever she did to her was rough. It’ll probably take some work to get her back together again, but I think we can do it. That is to say, as long as her alter ego doesn’t turn me into a puddle of sparkling silver goo.
“That goes without saying . . . as for the presence of your family? The summoning is nearly complete. Your golden girl carried Lida tiredly kicking and twisting all the way there . . . I thought I would wait here with this one. You were bound to come . . .” Her grin slowly fades away into the softest of smiles. “Silhouette’s complimentary magical repertoire hasn’t been of much use to me, but it was enough to predict which path you would choose.”
“That’s all you’ve used it for? Way to go. Silhouette is no slouch. If that’s all you’ve used her powers for then stopping you should be a cinch.” Smirking, I flick my wrist to pantomime firing a spark but instead fire one from each of my eyes.
Her hand rises up and she falls back into a shadow that was not there a moment before. The spark follows her in, but if that’s for the best or not, I have no clue. “I simply did not require use of them, until now.”
Sometimes, you don’t want the people you hate to use every part of the animal.
This makes me wish I’d spent a lot more time learning the extents of Silhouette’s abilities. Can her shadows let her do anything, or are there limits? Should I be expecting Quillspawn to dive out of a shadow, or does that matter? When I faced her on the rooftop, it was pretty dark. I don’t know if that helped or not.
I jump away from my position at the door, keeping my back to a wall. How the heck am I supposed to win a battle like this? I only beat Quillspawn last time because her mother cheated. I don’t even know where that daffodil went afterwards . . . this is not good. I wish I had kept that magic book at least long enough to find out how to make depowering daffodils.
That hunk of metal that was left over when the book burned is still in my belt. It’s just a hunk of metal, but so is the pendant around my neck. Maybe it could do . . . nnnn . . . ah!
A shadow casts itself over me, and a pale hand extends to drip that slick heavy ink down onto my scalp. I spark to make it sizzle away, but it still leaves me rather dizzy. Before I can reach up towards the shadow her hand withdraws back within and the shadow, sealing into nothingness.
My eyes keep wanting to cross and I can’t help but let them for just a moment. Her ink didn’t drip far enough down, but I take the opportunity to spark myself up again. I shouldn’t have let my guard down!
“Your disappointment dried up along with my ink, I take it?” Her voice seems to come from everywhere in the room and yet nowhere at once. Every word makes me look in another direction, but every time it makes her voice come from still another direction. “Even your double’s magic will not be able to reach you here. Following such an unfortunate turn, steps were taken to make sure I wouldn’t lose my precious ancilla again so . . . foolishly. Your back will taste my truth anew.”
I spin around, fearful of a hand coming behind me, only to feel a sharp stab of nearly blinding pain explode through my back. Her quill is in my back again, but it feels so much worse stabbing in so quickly without ceremony, without my mind being locked into place. Tears well in my eyes as I try to reach back for her hand.
Before I can grasp at her wrist the quill pulls back and I scream as my knees shake. The shadowy portal closes again as I try to reach for it. Nothing has ever hurt so much. It wasn’t like before, where it stung and then turned into a dull roar of pain. This was sharp, and when it pulled out, it only hurt worse.
I keep darting my eyes around as quickly as I can to try to catch a glimpse, but there’s not any more or less shadow than there was when I first entered the room. I close a hand over the sharp point of pain in my back, and when I pull it back her black ink is mingled with silver . . .
“You’re a lot quieter than usual, Silver Girl . . . This makes me the second to enjoy such a gift. Savor was the first, wasn’t she? The Lady quieted you, but that was a different affair.” Her voice feels so close I can taste it, but nothing is there when I turn and stretch a spark out towards what was behind me. “You still babbled and mewled as you drooled against her desk. You even pitifully begged Yanta to stop . . . Do you remember those drops of sweat down your back? Let’s see if I can make you recall the memory.”
My back is still sparking, but that ink she pierced inside of me won’t crackle away as quickly as the rest did. Instead, it drips down my back, cruelly, making my body shake and writhe. It only burns away once it reaches the end of my back.
“Stop it! Come out and face me! You weren’t afraid to face me last time – and this time I don’t even have a flower! Do you remember, that it was your own dear mother who gave it to me?! After Red has been summoned, you could be her offering! Me, Mourning Frost, Yana . . . and you. If it helped her, do you think she wouldn’t?!” My voice is shaky, but only half as shaky as my knees.
A shadow opens in front of me, and her quill darts forth directly between my eyes. The feather end tickles me and draws my eyes together, making my mind feel so fuzzy and tickled right down to the core, but her hand doesn’t dart back nearly fast enough this time. Her hand struggles to tear away, but I hold fast.
The ink keeps sizzling as it slides down my back, making my eyes feel weighed down. I try to make my inner light burn trough it as I tighten my hold on her wrist. It dulls the sensation, but not enough for me to be able to ignore it completely, only enough for me to be able to focus through the bliss. “I’m not that pitiful . . . That was just stupid . . . Really, Quillspawn . . . Mmmm . . . Even with how . . . oh . . . Every little drop of ink feels like it’s sliding down a place far more sensitive than my back . . . that doesn’t mean I’ll succumb that easy . . .”
I try to ignore it, to force my light over it, but the ink still feels like it’s dripping down the center of my brain and right down my slit. Every second that I hold onto her wrist I can feel myself fighting through it more easily, but that doesn’t make it go away. Why would she do that? Why would she give me an opening?
“Supposed to . . . want this . . . You always just . . . succumb . . .!” Quillspawn’s black eyes grow wider, and I make mine shine as brightly as I can. “It took everything in you, to resist last time . . .”
“Yeah . . . Yeah it did . . . Mmmm . . .” I pull on her wrist as I send every ounce of energy I have into her arm. Her eyes open wider than I have ever seen Quillspawn or Silhouette’s eyes bulge before. Her body spasms and shakes as she weakly screams, her lips quivering so desperately as she struggles for control. “I’m not the same woman that was sad . . . disappointed . . . she had to give up Chronos to defeat you . . .”
Lines of silver and white begin to lace through the inky black of her eyes. Their pale lids shudder, seeming unsure if they want to try to struggle to stay open or struggle to close. Her black lips start to shimmer, lines of silver tracing and glowing through them just like her eyes.
Her hand drops the feather before clenching into a helplessly tight fist. Every finger twitches as she struggles, trapped in the embrace of my sparks. Just as I did with Yana I start to push my light more deeply into her.
“I’m not the same Silver Girl that missed being a slave . . . Oh, I loved it, and I still love how it feels . . . but I’ve learned when I have to say no.” I tighten my grip, careful not to hurt her, as I feel the current growing stronger. I start to step back, and the shadow around her grows to accommodate her body as I pull her out. “I’ve learned when I have to make the other woman say yes. I’ve learned when . . . Mmm . . . When fighting against that control can feel even better than . . . Emmmbracing it . . . Like you are right now . . .”
“Yesssss . . .!” Quillspawn’s voice melts into something closer to Silhouette’s as the silver in her eyes starts to dominate the black. “Embrac-iiing!” Every part of her body shakes as the last of her falls from the shadowy hole in the air, and the last of the ink drips down my back and sizzles away. “Nooow . . .!”
Grinning to myself, I kneel down and let go of her hand, placing both of my thumbs over her temples. “Now Quillspawn . . . I might have failed to purge you before, but not this time. It’s time to let the shadow kitty back out to play.”
The sound she makes can only be described as a howl of bliss and surrender as I flood my light into her, muttering faintly under my breath as I focus the brightest, most intense part of my light right into her essence. I can feel every moment as her mind grows brighter and brighter, sizzling Quillspawn’s influence away just as if she were another splotch of ink. Her whines and whimpers don’t slow for even a moment as she arches and shudders as pitifully as I was not too long ago.
It feels like burning away a larger part of what she left behind in Yana’s mind. Flashes of memory smash into my consciousness as I burn the ink away with my light.
Silhouette finding her, but being attacked from behind by ink, feeling it soak into her head, into her mind, and tearing off her clothes to give it better access—I can remember how she felt as the ink slid along her back and into her ears, diving in at both her pussy and mind at once. I can remember how much she tried to fight it off with her shadow, but all that it did was draw the ink in deeper and teach it how to manipulate her power. I remember how helpless she felt when she finally succumbed to the ink.
It felt so good, even if it betrayed every part of her to lose control, she loved that last moment of nothingness.
This almost feels like killing you . . . And I don’t like the thought of killing anyone . . . but I have no clue how to seal up an entity like you, so . . . hopefully, there’s some great beyond even for an inky bitch like you. I try to force my thoughts into her ink, and I actually do feel bad at the thought of possibly not pulling it off.
The last of her sizzles away, and I pull my energy back just in case that much silver so close to Silhouette’s mind might fry away her shadow. I’d hate to do that to two people because of one . . . thing.
“Wah!” Sarah’s voice echoes through the room as the doors finally fall open. “Damn it! I almost fell over! Where is that stupid inky little- Silhouette!” She quickly kneels down beside me and looks worriedly down at Silhouette. “Oh shadow . . . you’re okay . . . I was going to be so upset if these witches did something to you. They got in your head in my timeline, too . . . but you never have to go through that. You fared a lot better this time around without being chained to me. Never hoped I’d see you again . . .”
Standing up, I brush myself off and rub at the very sore wound on my back. “Well . . . Yana is over there. If you two could try clearing her out while I get a little breather, that would be great. We’d have four against however many if Silhouette can wake up, but I won’t blame her if she needs to sleep it off.”
Valerie moves to crouch beside Sarah and wraps an arm around her before whispering something into her ear. It sounds playful, but she casts a look over at Yana so I can be sure it has something to do with my request. “I’m glad you got her for good this time, Lucia. I still can’t believe that she got away last time, but I’m glad she won’t have another chance to twist someone’s mind around like that.”
I don’t know if I agree. She was evil, but she was a living thing. Maybe she could have been fixed, even if it took magic stronger than Lida’s. I feel bad that she’ll never get the chance, but I don’t feel too guilty about it. I did what I had to do in a tricky situation.
“Thanks. So yeah . . . I’m going to lean against a wall for a few minutes and hope this sharp pain in my back dies down . . . Then, Yana might know the way to wherever the ritual is being completed. Knowing our luck, we’re going to get there right as Red peeks her head out of whatever twisted red world she’s been hiding in.”