Nurturer of Nightmares

Reni

I landed on my hands and knees in the field, shuddering in horror at the Dark God I’d just encountered; drawn to me with my own powers by mistake. By training that power, honing it into something worthy of possessing the title World-Killer, I had painted a target on my back for more powerful, ancient enemies.

Canin and Tallila rushed to my side, trying to lift me from the grass, the latter begging to know where I had gone, the former demanding to know what I’d seen. Shaking my head, I rose in front of the crowd of people before me, simply, shakily saying, “Let’s continue the ritual, shall we?” Canin and Tallila exchanged worried glances, but conceded as the crowd began cheering triumphantly, the pounding of the drums beginning again as I approached the pedestal of stone before me, my footsteps in time to the beat.

Everyone had gathered here, in this forest cloaked in shadows and starlight, to see me. They were here to crown me the Queen of their city, to grant me use of their armies in preparation for the biggest war of the next two-thousand years, or, for them, the past two-thousand years. I couldn’t halt it just because I was feeling sick to my stomach.

Bending down, I picked up the crown they’d made specially for me from the grass, gracefully dumping it onto my head and kneeling in front of the pedestal again, Canin and Tallila on either side of me, their hands on my shoulders.

They were making me their Queen, giving me the keys to their city.

‘Reni, what did you see?’

‘Someone dragged me there. Lazarus, a Dark God of Daemonium. An Old One.’

Old One’s was the name given to the three who had supposedly created the Dimensions, the beings older than Ancients themselves. Canin, having grown up being trained with modern-day knowledge, wouldn’t have known Lazarus by his true name, he simply would have been an Old One.

‘An Old One dragged you… where?! To their realm? Why?!’

‘He claimed someone is looking for me, and he saved me from them. He took me to The Borderlands, to a boat with some of my mother’s allies. He was trying to sink it, and I guess he wanted me to watch? He knows my actual name.’

‘Do you believe him? We have the best guards in this world currently watching this ceremony, and when you vanished, they lost their minds. Orders were sent out to find you until Tallila explained why you might have vanished. We didn’t think you’d been forcibly dragged away… I didn’t even know that could happen.’

‘No. Lazarus isn’t exactly a benevolent Old One. He’s evil. He’ll be hunting us now.’

‘Why?!’

‘Because I embarrassed him…’ I trailed off, half-listening to the Priest reading out my vows to the city, his fingers wrapped around the dagger that would slice across my upper bicep, and Canin raised an eyebrow when I murmured, ‘He called me the Queen of Night.’

The blood rushed from his face, and he began stammering, choking out, ‘We should leave after this ceremony. The last thing we need is for them to drag you into another ritual.’

‘I don’t think I could handle that ritual.’

‘Maybe he was just trying to scare you? There’s no reason why these people would name you the Queen of Night.’

There was a sharp slice across my bicep, and I winced, flinching slightly in surprise, Tallila and Canin holding me in place as the mild toxin on the blade seeped into my blood, and I hissed in pain, baring sharpened teeth. In the crowd, I heard someone exclaim, “Half Demonic!” With a short laugh, someone else replied, “That’ll be gone, soon!”

‘You’ve got this,’ Canin breathed, Tallila saying aloud, “Are you okay, Reni?”

Nodding once, I wrapped my fingers around the edges of the pedestal, watching claws flash briefly at the end of my fingertips before they vanished. The toxin on the blade supposedly cleansed bloodstreams of anything Demonic, making them pure enough to lead the city.

What I hadn’t bothered to tell the idiotic Priest was that no such toxin existed. BloodIron was probably the closest thing to purging someone of all Demonic traits, but even it was temporary. This wasn’t BloodIron, though. It was Daestra, a poison designed to cause mild discomfort, and then illness for a few days. It had no special properties to it, but it had been used historically to take Kings out of court for a few days, allowing decisions to be made by their councilmen. I’d been reading about its effects before the ceremony, and if what I’d read was correct, I wouldn’t be getting out of bed for the next week or so. If Canin thought we needed to leave the city after the ceremony, they were going to have to carry me out.

“I’m a quarter Demonic-being,” I said jokingly to the crowd, my voice shaking as my veins glowed for a moment, “My mother was half Demonic.”

People laughed, but I could feel Canin and Tallila’s concern growing as I doubled over, their legs pressed firmly against my back the only thing keeping me from collapsing in pain, and I inhaled sharply.

“Reni?”

I shook my head, my stomach roiling as the world around me spun, and I groaned, “It’s fine. I read about this. Nothing is unusual about what’s happening.”

The stone pedestal was blissfully cold against my forehead, and I leaned down on it, the Priest announcing loudly that the Demonic had been cleansed from my blood, people cheering loudly, already mocking the Demonic for being so easily cleansed.

In two-thousand years, nothing had changed in regard to how people treated Demonic-beings, and the Immortal War had done nothing to help that disrespect.

As the Priest granted us the freedom to retire to bed, Canin bent down, scooping me up and whispering, “You did great, Reni.”

I nodded weakly, gulping as Tallila scooped up the crown I had dropped yet again, people cheering for their new Queen and court. Glancing out over the crowd for a brief moment, my vision already blurring with a fever, my eyes locked on to Dane, a solemn look on his face as he slowly applauded me…