"Make way! Make way! For blessed Temuni Ik'Duqara, blood of the blasphemer, daughter of the sky, and the heiress of the steppe! Make way, make way, people of Guttaqar!"
The aged voice of the herald rang through the charred ruins of the once prosperous town. Its great walls of stone and curved towers of wood and marble had been reduced to rubble and ashes, the roads which ran out of the city had been ruined, their pavements unrooted, their bridges torn down. The town had been a great white mass which shone under light and shadow in the valley of the Urkkon river, its surroundings had been lush and ripe with the crops which fed its people, and the even very outskirts of its power were filled with the herds which would fuel its wealth; but now those herds were slain and taken, and the crops were burnt and ruined, and the town itself had no better fate to speak of.
For three months the city had retreated within the safety of its walls, gazing upon the passing riders while perched high atop their towers, by the time the first moon had passed, no caravans approached the city thereon, and all passing wayfarers and travellers alike spoke without ill intent of the city's impending doom, over a hundred families fled the city before the Prince declared that none were to leave thereon. When the second moon had passed, two last travellers had entered the city, and it was then that the Prince declared the gates to be sealed.
Among those trapped by the bolting of the Hare's Gate were the two unmasked travellers, whose strange arrival and stranger companionship set countless tongues rolling within the bazaar and the refuge within which they stayed as the siege heightened. Of them, one was garbed in a dark embroidered coat and hood which were often seen in the carts of easterners in the markets, yet seldom ever worn, its buttons dark and rusted, the long fabrics of the coat almost touching the earth. There was little seen under the hood, but pale eyes and flickers of paler hair would meet any who dared to gaze too long. The other was as distinct as one could be, the exotic, suspicious foreign garb was absent in place of the familiar yet silence inducing white robes of a Silver Priestess, from a land just as distant as the former, yet instilling rather than fear, envy and silent respect for one of a faith which had since long taken root in the town, the familiar dark hair and beige skin did little to make her seem more familiar to the Guttaqari.
Many were barred in their attempts to flee the city, it was a walled tomb, and many as such raised their voices against the retainers and the boy upon the throne whom they served, but they were met with contempt. Indeed, their lives depended upon the strength of the retainers, the few who raised against them in fear were punished for all to see in the square of the open sky, a loose stone was thrown, and a dozen perished by the retainers' blades. The boy prince kept from leaving his palace from that day thereon, as the retainers manned the wall.
On the dawn of the day the first moon passed, the city was silent, and as Nulini, the morning star, shone bright towards the north, from under her gaze arrived a great dark mass from behind the shadows of the mountains. The horde of the Daughter of the Sky hoisted camp in the shadow of the town's walls, tearing down the roads and cutting down the trees as they lit large bonfires for feasts as the men of the town hungered beneath their walls.
A lone rider was lifted down then, bound with rope and chain from the town walls on the second moon, he rode under the twilight mist to the camp of the horde and pleaded there for an audience with the Heiress. He kneeled and begged upon the mud under her gaze and sued for peace and pardon, but none was given by the riders whose vengeance upon the city was as an unending storm. The rider, dismayed and returned, shared the news with the watchers upon the wall, and then he fled upon his horse eastwards along the valley, a silver light felled him from his horse, his back blackened with an arrow blessed with the heat of the moon. None were there to offer last rites for the corpse.
From the felled trees and looted metals, the horde created great engines of war, large towers to scale the walls, great sprayers of fire and ash to burn away the wood, their pikes and blades glowed silver as the Moon and Sky blessed them. The Daughter and her priests then called upon their god of the sky and so -brought forth a great storm which flooded the canals of the town, felling men from the walls and ravaging the emptying granaries. Two travellers failed in their attempts to that day escape the walls.
On the dawn of the third moon, a splinter of the horde descended upon the town.
The wall was breached by the great gate, with a tower toppled over its ramparts and a burning hole within its stem, the riders rode into the city, cutting away the militia and making sport of the retainers, whose flesh burned upon the touch of their steel. They took the walls for themselves, shooting within the city with their bows and their masters of flame, they sprayed fire upon the granaries and the banners of the prince, who in his turn locked himself away with the aristocracy within his keep at the heart of the city, the gate was not barred from within, yet the riders made no effort to breach it. They destroyed the city's gate, and tore down the city walls from within, destroying the bases of the towers and setting ablaze the markets and spires of the town. Thousands were still trapped within the ruin, not killed by the riders but faring no better against the smoke and rubble. With the retainers defeated in all but the prince's keep, the Heiress' vanguard entered the town.
At the call of the herald, many of the townspeople exited their nooks and ruined homes, huddling under roofs held up by pillars of rubble, many carried burns from the flames, others carried loose limps dangling by their side, many stood next to the dead, buried under rubbles, felled by stray arrows or spearheads, or trapped within the flames. They all watched as the host of Heiress arrived on the main road. The crumbling statue of the first prince was a waste upon her feet, and she appeared a goddess in midst of the rubble. Her horse was dark as the night of the steppe, its coat and chains were shaped like the stars shining in the blackness, and Temuni Ik'Dukara was the moon in her part.
Her garb was much like her royal vanguard, the purest silver furs hunted only in the farthest reaches of Kuttenog in the north. It shone like the finest garments of the princes of the settled cities, but in their stead it clung close to the people who held up the reign of its wearer. The daughter of the sky was the very image of her people, long black hair flowed in long even strands like layers of flowing silk, dark eyes on a pale face, pale such that the settled peoples would call her people ghosts when they were not in mind for foul insults. She was small to her people in stature, taking that much from her fathers who could not have dreamt her to have united their people under the sky, but upon that horse and surrounded by her vanguard, she was like the morning star within her moving nation, and all eyes were upon her on the road.
"Oh, you poor people! We see your suffering and your plights, how you hold your wounded babes in your arms, and stand over your fallen mothers and fathers. We have seen in our memories, and in the hate fuelled songs of our forefathers, how you built this town of stone and marble, raising it from the tents and ditches of mud and furs to these dens of rock and warmth, how sorrowful must it be! To witness its ruin!", the herald trotted further into the town, the Heiress by his side.
"But truly! This has only fallen upon you for your own sins! For how many centuries did ye hunt us down in the summers for sport? For how many winters were we denied passage to these warmer lands, dooming thousands of us to die in frost and hunger? You have sinned, and for it you have now suffered, and even now there is more suffering to come, though what you have all done may be unforgivable, the Daughter of the Sky provides as the spring and is as merciful as the wind!"
A dark shape flashed across the air, flying in a heavy arc as several eyes turned towards it; the small brick struck the Daughter's steed near its chest, it let out cries of pain and leapt upon its hind legs and the cries were interrupted by the unsheathing of dozens of blades as the riders formed a wall between the crowd and the horse. The horse rose up towards the air, its back almost towards the earth, yet the daughter of the sky did not fall, she instead remain atop her seat, unfazed, and stroked the mane of her ride, it calmed as if by mystic force, its eyes losing their heat.
Eyes now turned towards two of her guard, who dragged out of the crowd the would-be assassin, a girl, ragged, light hair covered by soot, a harsh mark of flame running over her arms and chest, and bruises of rubble and ruin upon her face and feet. She had attempted to take a life, yet fear was now on her face. A rider put a blade before her throat, but the gaze of the daughter met his eyes, and he lightened his grip, "Bring her before me, and the others watch the crowd, there are plenty of bricks lying around.", she got off her steed, landing softly upon the ground, weightless like the wind.
"What is your name, little assassin?", she said, her voice was not alike the common riders of the steppe, to it, it had the faint touch of someone higher than those of the grasses upon the earth, and an echo as if arriving from the air itself.
The girl no longer had the boldness of a killer, but she met the daughter's gaze, and dared in vain to replace her fear with contempt, it shown in her eyes, but only as does oil over water.
"If you do not tell me, then I shall simply give you a new one, and that is all that those around us will remember you by."
That sparked something within her and for a moment her eyes flashed with a deeper thought, "Ainza,", she said, "I have no second name to speak of, and the names of my fathers do not matter here.", her eyes were meeting those of the daughter.
The daughter of the sky did not speak for long seconds, her eyes turned for a second towards the sky, then towards the earth, and then back again to those of her assailant. "If you were handed a spear at this moment, would you brandish it and run me through?"
Ainza's eyes were fixed towards the earth, "…I would not…"
"There are more eyes upon you now than there may ever be later in your life, is it a liar you wish to be for this moment?"
The girl's head turned upward, "I…".
"Answer me."
"…I would. I would take the spear, and I would kill you, and every single one of you murderers. You are beasts, monsters that the Herald could not have made."
At that moment a soft wind arrived on that road, it set in flight the dust which coated the stones, and the riders gazed up towards the sky and some whispered amongst each other, the slightest smile then appeared on the face of the daughter of the sky. She turned her back to Ainza, who was frozen as ice where she sat upon the ground, and, as if naught had just been said, began heading back towards her horse. Just as she did so, one of the riders holding Ainza pulled her face by the hair as she let out a hissing whimper a long sabre was put before her throat again, and she closed her eyes to not see the blade coming closer.
"Remove that blade,", the voice of the daughter echoed from atop her horse, Ainza's eye snapped open, "She will be part of my vanguard, a servant or keeper, whatever she may be good for provided it is close to me. She attempted to lower me, so it is that she will repent in service to me, find her a close place, even if you need to bind her to keep her there.
"And none shall leave the town now. Guard every breach in the wall, every gate, every hidden door. We will proceed onto where the craven prince hides in his keep of stone, and once all there is done, the settled people will then help us tear down these stone walls and let repair these burnt homes for those that we will let remain here. There will be little to hide from under our reign, and no one not a rider shall leave the town."
A chorus of whispers began within the crowds, some were of relief while some of frigid contempt, to be ruled by the nomads who for all the lives of the sedentary people had appeared a distant nuisance, a distasteful reminder of the lack of culture outside the walls of their town, was no easy matter for them to take to heart, much less after their homes had been set ablaze and many of their fellows killed in battle. Several eyes were on the girl Ainza who was half-dragged deeper into the daughter of the sky's vanguard, she now struggled less, though her eyes were a strange hue.
As the daughter of the sky continued along the street, a dark clothed figure with a long scabbard by its side appeared before her horse, and one in silver robes followed close behind her. "Make way!", the herald struck his banner pole upon the earth, "Just because the daughter has shown the purest mercy to one, does not mean that she may do so again! Do not temp-"
"There is no mercy to give here,", spoke the hooded woman, "We are not of this town nor this people, and so have no feud with you. We were only trapped here when the gates were barred and carry the seal of the honourable Council of the West, let us leave unscathed and show that you are just."
"By order of the daughter, none shall go over the town walls, and no seal of distant stone-dwellers shall change that! All who hid within its walls made their choice of servitude and thus it is only- "
"Stop, Rubatai,", the daughter of the sky looked towards the two travellers, "You would have had better luck attempting to sneak away past the riders guarding the walls, yet you instead confront me while letting yourselves be nameless. What are your names?"
"I am Veala from Gurin and travel with Lionis Telgoren, a highborn Priestess who has felt the water of the Silver Pool on her flesh.", though that thing was only known to them as vague tales of distant lands, the last part succeeded in its effect, even the eyes of the Daughter of the Sky gleamed in thought.
"So, Veala,", she began, "How did two of such impressive names end up here in such an unremarkable town? What do you seek in this country?
"The town has nothing to do with us being here, it was only meant to be a temporary stop, until the gates were melded in front of us."
"Don't attempt to ignore my question,", the daughter's eyes caught the other figure then, Lionis stood under a ruin near the Veala's side, her robes of a Silver Priestess caught her eye. Her eyes twitched, "But I think it would be dishonest for a young nation to restrict those from one with which it has no feud. You may leave by the next dawn, but today you will accompany me as we finish the turn of this town and approach the prince's keep, there is much that to see that would be good to reach the distant west."
Veala knew that they walked on thin ice. The Daughter could not afford to seem meek at the name of the distant peoples of the west, who had little warmth in the hearts of the steppe, neither could she antagonize those who by her own declarations had no feud with her people. It would be best to take what they had been offered, she turned towards Lionis, who nodded silently.
The mass of the vanguard continued along the main road, being observed by the ruined people from every flat inch of the ground not in its path. Veala and Lionis accompanied the Daughter of the Sky by her side, which for her meant under the shadow of her horse.
Lionis whispered in her ear, "I saw her eyes change as she heard who I was, I think she hopes to get something from me, or hopes that I might do something for her gain here."
They could never be free from it. "Are you alright with that?"
Lionis sighed, soft and with a long exhale, "We are only here for one goal, and have already managed to waste months being stuck here, I can't let myself be distracted anymore, not by force or otherwise. Not again."
Veala tried her best to make her whispers sound reassuring, "Then we won't be distracted. We will be gone by dawn, and if she thinks she could use you then she has awfully little foresight for someone who claims herself divine." A faint smile almost appeared on Lionis' face, but the Daughter's herald gazed at them from atop his horse causing Veala to stop her whispers, though not before sending him a sharp gaze. The old rat turned away.
The closer they got to the Prince's keep, the cleaner the town appeared. The battle had all but ended by the time the Riders reached the inner town, and as such the heart of the town at places appeared all but untouched. The arches and domes stood intact upon the tall buildings, making even the tall horses feel small. The painted whites and golds upon the rich manors shone such that they irritated Veala's eyes if she looked upwards.
The heart of the town was deserted, not even any fallen retainers or splatters of blood to interrupt the pristine roads. The only noise was that of footsteps and trots, and soft sizzles from fires at distant edges of the town. The entirety of the aristocracy had fled to the keep with the Prince, but none could be seen atop its walls or windows, the keep was silent.
Before the keep was a large, open courtyard, enclosed by a strong wall and with a single wooden gate leading inside. The Daughter of the Sky called to her guard, many of them dismounted and with rhythmic discipline began pushing against the gate. Dust scattered as it began to move inwards, bringing into view the vast, open courtyard of the keep, the ground was neatly trimmed, the grass greener than that of the surrounding hills. Silence.
What remained of the aristocracy was spread across the courtyard, dressed in bright colours and brighter ornaments, all the houses which owned the riches of the town, tones of distinct peoples from all over the valley among them. They were lay over the earth, lifeless.
The Vanguard quietened at the sight as it got past the gate. Veala scanned the scene, no body moved, no finger twitched, they were all still upon the ground, children and old men alike, still and completely pale. But there was no blood which she could see, no wounds open on flesh, or anguish in their poses.
At the centre of the corpses stood a lone figure. On two feet, with limp limbs and a bent head, as if half asleep. A white crown moulded like feathers of an eagle sat upon his head, the boy prince.
"Approach him,", spoke the Daughter of the Sky, "But be careful, I can feel it in my blood, there is something not of this plane at work here."
Her herald repeated her call, and two of her guard held up long pikes and began walking cautiously towards where the prince stood, taking care to not step on the corpses which lined the open way. The Daughter watched on.
"No, no- they don't know what they are doing,", Lionis frantically whispered, her eyes were alarmed.
"What happened here, the Prince, did he kill them a-,", Veala's question was interrupted by a scream from one of the guards, the pike clattered to the ground as his grip on it fell and he covered his ears as he writhed where he stood, the other grabbed his shoulder but soon joined in the anguish as the strange force reached him as well. He grabbed his companion and, while screaming, dragged him away from the path towards the prince, they fell to the ground and stopped screaming, exhaling as if they nearly drowned.
The Daughter of the Sky and several guards bent to the ground to help them, "Can you breathe?", she asked them, her voice alarmed, "Quickly! Get them out of here and to a healer, make sure no one else enters the courtyard and all must stay away from that Prince until we know what is happening here!"
"Wait, let me approach him,", Lionis called to the Daughter, who turned towards her.
"You saw what happened to them when they tried to approach him, do you know what is at play here, Priestess?"
"I don't know exactly what that Prince is, but I can feel a familiar presence within it, I can be certain of what it is but only if I get closer,", she turned towards Veala, "Stay behind me, Vea, I want you to pull me back if you are sure I would fail, but stay at a safe distance."
"This is dangerous, Li, the two might have died if they went any closer, are you sure there's not a safer approach?", Veala could not mask her anxiousness.
"I know! It's just that this feels… important, somehow, I need to try something here.", she turned towards the Daughter for approval.
"Very well, clear the way! Let the Priestess try what she will."
Lionis began approaching the Prince in the centre of the courtyard, and Veala followed cautiously behind her. She walked careful to avoid the corpses upon the ground, and when she looked down for it, their lifeless faces greeted her.
Then the noise began.
It started as faint whispers in her ears, faint yet sharp, clawing at her years, and then they grew on and on, hisses and cries which had no source yet felt as if they were right beside her, by instinct she wished to look behind herself to see from where they were not coming. There were screams, hisses, cries of children, gnawing within her, growing louder and louder and louder. She barely even noticed Lionis in front of her gesturing her to stop walking, she then began making the final stretch alone, how could she bear it so much stronger?
She saw Lionis bend as she walked further, covering her ears just as the guards had done, but unlike them she did not stop, even with her back towards Veala she could tell her face would be in anguish as every step of hers was slower than the last. Stop it! The Priestess is dooming herself! Veala's own noises overshadowed the Daughter's calls, but she afraid as she saw Lionis proceed further, she really did seem on the brink, and Veala herself was writhing on her own spot.
The Prince still stood the same despite all that he was spreading around him, his head lying limp towards the ground, but as Lionis finally arrived before him, he twitched slightly, and then all the noises roared like they had never done so before. Veala screamed, covering her ears as the noises thrust needles into her from every inch of her surroundings, her legs gave away and she fell onto her knees in agony, reality indecipherable around her, if the misery did not stop all her thoughts from developing past their infancy then she would've thought that she was about to die and turn to dust. But it all stopped then, in an instant.
Veala opened her eyes, lowering her hands from over her ears as she exhaled in relief and looked towards the Prince. It was on its knees now, and Lionis held her hands around its face which was frozen in an expression even more lifeless than those of the corpses around it.
"I think it may be safe to come closer now,", she said, "I heard it-,", her eyes widened as a sizzle cut through the air, smoke began to rise from the lifeless Prince and Lionis gasped as she let go of her grasp on its face. Its skin began to char, dark patches appearing from wherever the smoke emerged, his clothing began to rip and tear, cinders appearing on it and spreading through the air. And then the sizzles ceased.
Veala grabbed Lionis' shoulder and pulled her away from the Prince, she was not heavy but the storm of noise had exhausted Veala. She dove with Lionis backwards, landing at a little distance away on the ground and hurting her shoulder in the process. Heat then briefly enveloped them as the Prince burst into flames with an explosion.
They both gasped and looked behind themselves, if she had been any slower…, The fire had subsided now, and though the Prince's surroundings were charred, the fire was confined to its body alone. Lionis put a hand over Vea's shoulder.
"I heard it- its own voice, buried deep within the others, it began to brighten as the distance between us dulled, and when I touched it, I heard it weep."
"Is the Prince still dangerous? Why did it burst aflame?", Vea asked between exhales.
"The Prince perished with all the others here, its husk is host something else now, I have never seen anything such as this before.,", her eyes stayed unwavering towards the smouldering corpse.
"A Demon of Hatred!", spoke the Herald, the Daughter and her guard cautiously approached them, "We have many records of such a spirit, but to find such here in a place as this, it is worrying."
Lionis spoke without giving him a glance, "I have never heard of what you speak of, but there was no Hatred within it that I felt, only… fear, yes.", she struggled to stand from the ground and held out her arm for Vea to help her up, "A larger disaster could still brew here! I know what this is, a rogue spirit of cinder, called an Ignizar in the west, who were spread across the east long ago in the time when the king of Waaeth ruled all still, and where they came from is further than your heavens, more distant than is life from death! None but me must go near what remains of the 'prince', for all I know it could flee the cadaver and find someone new to take hold in, we would be doomed if it did.", Veala repeated her words louder for the Daughter of the Sky to hear, who had been observing in silence.
"Return to your duties in the town,", she called to her guard, "There is no Prince left to challenge us here, we will enter the keep later when the time is right.", most of her guard began heading outside the courtyard, but the Herald and several others remained.
"Now, Priestess,", the Daughter began, "What do you intend to do with… the spirit that now burns as the Prince? It killed an entire courtyard of people without struggle, will it remain dormant for long?"
The cadaver of the Prince continued to burn, the flames worked their way through its flesh and bones faster than anything natural, Lionis raised her voice to be heard, "It is dormant in its wrath only, since I touched it I can feel its essence like another sense, I feel it fade as the body burns. When it has turned to ash, whatever possessed it should be gone, but until then nothing of flesh that isn't me must stray too close."
"Once it is only ash and cinders, will the spirit be 'dead'?"
"From all I have seen before, it should be as close to dead as something so formless can be. So yes, it will be dead.", her words were barely soft enough to be heard. Veala heard a sprint then, and turned around as guards barked behind her. A small figure was running towards the Prince, the only one in the courtyard who not the pair or one of her guard. The girl, Ainza was what Veala had heard her name.
"She must not get to it!", Lionis screamed.
Veala ran to stop her from getting close to it, overtaking the guards who had not seen her approaching, the girl was almost there, but she could catch her in time-
A hand grabbed her arm back with a light grip, "You must not get close either!", Li looked at her in stalwart fear, a sharp sizzle broke the air, "No… it is too late."
The girl grabbed the blazing body of the Prince in her arms, Veala saw them burn as she did, the fire in turn rose in magnitude, its flames and cinders reaching farther and farther in the air, forming blazing tendrils as they did.
"The girl is taking it in within herself! Stay back! This cannot be interrupted!" No one went closer by Lionis' warnings as the tendrils wrapped around the girl who made not even a sound. They engulfed her fully until no part of her could be seen within the inferno in the centre of the courtyard, and then, it faltered. Its tendrils grew smaller, the smoke it let out began to reduce, its light began to dull. It fell back to the earth, the fire had now taken the silhouette of the girl, down to her hair and rags.
The figure appeared to look straight at the, no, straight at the Daughter of the Sky, and then it screamed, a blood-wrenching noise like nothing that could come out of something of flesh and blood, it sounded as if the fire itself screamed. The figure took a final glance around the courtyard, and then with a flash of light and flame, it dashed faster than it could've been possible through and over the northern wall of the Courtyard, which faced clear alcoves leading straight out the town, it left a trail of cinders as it did.
Lionis collapsed to the ground and screamed on her knees, Vea bent down to catch her.
The Daughter of the Sky did not wait for her words, "Alert all the riders in the town! Look for cinders, flames, anything that could show where that spirit went, call on the scouts who must observe outside at once! The outer troops must know!", her guard burst into motion and action, her Herald repeated her words louder.
"It is gone from the town now,", Lionis spoke broken, "I heard it again as that girl absorbed it within her, its voice, fresh and renewed unlike the broken one of the Prince."
"What will that spirit do in the form of the girl? If it has her will then it will no doubt work against us, you must tell me, Priestess."
Lionis did not respond to her, "Help me up, Vea,", she rose up with her help, "We must leave, right now, it will have left a trail of fire wherever it went and though it may have appeared swift now, it will not be long until it tires and requires rest in some hiding spot."
"Our horses might be fine where we hid them, what do we do if we manage to track it down?", she helped Li walk towards the exit of the courtyard.
"It must be killed, I am not sure how it will be done but we have no other choice but follow it,", she finally turned towards the Daughter of the Sky, "It fled now in fear and confusion, the personhood of the girl would still be alive now and I can't imagine how it must feel to be two in one body, but that will only be lost as time goes on, and it will only strengthen as it does.
"With what that girl saw here, your people will be its first target, though it will likely cover in ash and blood whatever crosses its path until then. Keep yourself safe, there is something more dangerous than any king or lord hiding in his keep of stone after you now."
The Daughter seemed as if she would keep them from leaving as she scowled, but it appeared that she knew that she would get only corpses from doing so. Vea observed her whisper to her Herald as they left the courtyard.
"Gods, you're struggling to even walk, Li, you will not be able to ride like this, are you sur- "
"Then take one horse instead of two, we can't waste time, at all,", she gasped out every word, whatever she had heard from the Ignizar throughout the encounter had tired her. Vea could get her answers after she felt better.
The sun had begun to set by the time the banners of the Empire of the Daughter of the Sky were unfurled on what remained of the walls and keep of Guttaqar and the Daughter of the Sky took sight of the throne of the prince who was now ash, she did not sit upon it, the thrones of the Mokun were ridden rather than sat on. Under the shadow of the towers of the town, a lone horse headed northwards, following a trail of ash and cinders staining the earth and glowing in twilight dark.