Through The Storm

“I don’t care.” Rowida stood in front of the ancient altar in the woods, as the falling rain drenched her from head to toe. “I will banish you. I hate every minute I spent with you.”

“All this would accomplish is making me very angry,” Violet said with a snarl.

“Do your worst.” Rowida waved a metal rod she held in the general direction of Violet. “Eight years trapped in this desolate place, you even forced me to get married to that idiot son of the royal officer.”

“His beloved Agnes is an evil warmonger.” Violet laughed long. “But he will serve his purpose, and soon.”

“I don’t care,” Rowida screamed against the howling wind. “I will get pregnant with his child and leave this hell, then go back to Agartha.”

“You don’t even know where are any of the portals.” Violet laughed even harder. “What would you do? Search till the end of your days?”

“As I found this Arcanos.” Rowida pointed to the altar. “I will find another to guide me back.”

“You wouldn’t even survive my banishment.” Violet exploded in laughter. “The magical energy released would vaporize your body.”

“As I said.” Rowida smiled a vicious smile, made more so as it was framed by nearing lightening. “Death is a far better alternative than living with you, hanging to me like a leach.”

“Then you really wish to end the Deal?” Violet stopped laughing all of a sudden.

“Yes, with every beat of my heart, and from my innermost core, yes.” Rowida stared at Violet, who flew high into the storm.

“This Arcanos would not help you then. You have to fulfill the contract.”

As the lightening finally reached them, Rowida pushed a metal rod at the altar and stood back.

Not a moment passed, and the lightning hit the rod, bathing the whole area in bright light.

The altar now glowed a deep yellow, and Rowida ran and threw herself on it before Violet could interfere.

Then, she was not here.

Rowida stood on what looked like a long road hanging over nothing, going towards nothing and coming from nothing.

She started to walk slowly at first, then picked up her pace and soon was jogging down the road. After what seemed like hours of jogging, Rowida saw ahead what appeared to be a city in the void, and the road led directly towards it. She continued walking until she reached the gates.

A booming voice coming from nowhere said, “Who dares enter the city of Arcadia?”

“Rowida Verdum,” she said in a firm voice. “I made a deal under duress, and I would like to nullify it.”

“Who did you make a deal with?” The booming voice seemed to vibrate all the bones in Rowida’s body.

“Violet.”

Rowida knew lore described this place, but it was too material, nothing like she imagined it to be at all. She even smiled as she remembered her childish recreation of the realm of the Others, filled with wonders and oddities as far as the eye could see, nothing like the rather ordinary-looking castle in front of her, not at all.

In an instant, Violet appeared next to her, but this time she was as solid as Rowida was, with a flesh and blood body, not an ethereal one.

The voice boomed again. “Violet, also known as Morgan Le Fey, what say you to the claims of this woman?”

“I say that they are all false,” Violet said in a sure voice.

“Then the council of the Others would have to judge these claims.” The voice rumbled for some time after it finished its words, and the gate of the city opened.

As Rowida took a single step inside the gate, she found herself standing in front of twelve huge chairs, set in a semi-circle facing her.

“Prove your claim, human.” A man with a short black beard addressed her.

“Please, brothers and sisters, match the size of the human, lest she thinks that we are condescending to her,” Violet said.

In the time it took an eye to blink, the twelve people with their twelve chairs were now of regular size in front of Rowida.

“We are waiting for your proof, human,” the man with the black beard said.

Rowida adjusted the way she stood and said, “Violet came to me as I was in waiting for being banished from the city of Beimini.” She swallowed as the memories came flooding back. “She knew every move the Keeper of the nursery would take, including her offer to help me come back to Beimini through pregnancy.”

“Yet she omitted all that and used my lack of a soul to coerce me in signing the contract.” Rowida waved her hand in anger. “And then she made me kidnap a small boy, leading him to his death.”

Rowida shook her head to the sad memory of losing Ethan then she said, “She forced me to seduce the son of a man of power, and marry him, and for eight years, her moves led me nowhere in search of a soul.”

“I see.” The man turned to Violet and said, “Can you refute her claims?”

“Of course.” Violet produced the contract from somewhere around her attire.

“For her first claim, I didn’t force her or coerce her, as seen in the recording of our discussion before the signing.” She handed the man the contract, which he passed fast among the other members, then returned it to Violet.

“While we were under the power of the Deal, I could sense her wishes and desires, and I just helped her fulfill them.” Violet hid the contract gain about her, then said, “She wanted to keep the boy because his presence filled the void of her soul with warmth and feelings, I didn’t force her to take him to the surface where he died, she did it with her own violation.”

“As for her search for a soul, you can examine her, and you will find that she does have one-fifth of a soul, while as in the contract, she started with only one-twentieth of a soul.” Violet pointed to Rowida.

The man moved from his chair, touched Rowida’s forehead, then went back to his chair. “Continue, Violet.”

“The only path left to her was to give birth to a green child and take his soul to complete hers, as agreed in the contract, thus the marriage.” Violet finished and stood still with her arms straight beside her.

The twelve whispered for a while, then the man said, “You have not broken the rules of the Deal, Violet.” He paused for a moment then added, “However, she is important, and so was her balance, and you risked tipping the scale. In the light of this contract and both your testimonies, a decision had been reached.”

“This council has deemed the contract finalized, you can take your one-tenth of her soul and end it.”

“As you see fit, great Malachi.”

Rowida stood again in the storm, and she realized only a moment had passed since the lightning struck the altar as the afterglow was still there, but the altar was inert, as it didn’t glow anymore.

Beside her materialized Violet, and she had a wild snarl on her face. “You fool,” she spat the words. “I don’t care for the lousy one-tenth, I wanted to give you your full potential.”

“Just do it and let’s be over with this,” Rowida shouted at Violet, challenging her to finalize the contract.

“I will take it,” Violet rumbled. “Although it was just an excuse to make the Deal.”

She shook her head, and the storm stopped. “I could have made you immortal, but you settled for some lines in mundane history books.”

Then she descended like a hawk towards Rowida, latched on her head, and sucked.

Rowida felt the same agonizing pain of having her soul pulled out of her body as she had all those years ago.

As Rowida fell to the wet, muddy ground, Violet approached her and said, “Here is my final gift to you, ungrateful fool.”

Her form started to mist over. “Ask your husband to take you to the state of Walachia, there you will find the lost dragon soul, and the Arcanos bound to it, it will prove formidable in the wars to come.”

Then she disappeared.

Rowida sat laughing maniacally in the mud.