Chapter 174: A Call of Forgiveness

The air and ground were heavy with the acrid scent of burning earth and blood from the brutal fight mere seconds ago. The witches' coven was in silent sorrow with destruction spawned by destruction within reach. Black destruction loomed over the earth as soldiers and mages bind wounds, all holding their breaths in anticipation of the impending war to so become all-encompassing. Reika stood resolute on the smoldering age-worn walls which had imprisoned her. Her own face also was set, but the fire that smoldered behind the coals of her golden eyes hid an iron will. The war was finished and yet she well knew it was only now starting. By her side was Kael, stubborn second-in-command and meticulous councillor, arms crossed over the bronzed ridges of his chest. Black, slicked-back locks parted from his forehead, slit eyes scanned the horizon like a famished wolf on leash. "She'll return," he snarled. "We can use the fact that she's running to our advantage." Reika snarled and tossed back her head. "She'll come back, but not today. She's tending wounds, and she'll wait." Kael clenched his teeth. "So then, let's get ready." Reika would strike him before he could warn her when a figure stepped out of the shadows. There were three black-hooded, black-robed women who were walking towards the gate of the coven. Their shoulders were slumped in desperation and shame. Kael's senses, fingers wrapped around the hilt of his sword, pulled taut. "Who is he?" A hood was swept back from a furrowed, weathered face regarding Reika, silver beard quivering as he creaked a greeting. "Queen Reika." The sound reached Kael as he tensed his fingers on his sword and the remainder of the women in the courtyard moved, flicker of cautionary eyes. Reika's slanted-eyed scrutiny. She knew this man. Elder Rowan. One of the very men who had betrayed her, exiled her, and placed Ariadne on the throne where she should have been sitting. The other two, Elder Vance and Elder Liora, were not much better, their faces hidden under hoods. The elders prostrated themselves before Reika, robes billowing around knees in dust. "Mercy," Rowan begged, shaking. "We've come seeking mercy." Reika folded her arms across her chest taut and still. "Mercy?" She echoed, tilting her head to one side. "You seek mercy from me?" Liora's scowl twisted her lips once so proud, now so shamed under the weight of dishonor. "We were blinded, Your— "Don't even attempt it," Reika cut in, sharply. "I was never a queen, remember?". Rowan buried his face in his hands, shame written across his face. "We recall that we hurt you. We abandoned you. We disobeyed the rightful queen of our pack. And a monster took your seat." Fists were clenched around Reika's waist. The pain still gnawed. The shame. The humiliation. How they'd stolen her rightful place from her, humiliated her, without worth. She'd survived. Alone. Hunted. Tortured. And now she needed their assistance? Kael strode towards her, his anger seething. "Any idea what you've done?" he growled. "You let Ariadne take the throne and look what you've done! You enslaved your pack, burned your world, and you helped her do it!" Liora wept, shame choking her. "We were fools! We thought she was lying to us, and now—now our pack pays the price!" Rowan dragged himself onto his knees, staring at Reika. "We don't even deserve your forgiveness, but aid us. Aid us reclaim our pack. Aid us be free of Ariadne's oppression." Reika did not stir for what had been an eternity. Silence was strangulation by death. She liked the dance of flame consuming torches, screams of agony at some distance, soft stroking of air on stone. And she spoke. "You made them do it to me." Rowan's head dropped once more. "Yes." "You took my crown." Liora wept and nodded, crying with tears streaming down her face as she sobbed. "Yes." "You oiled her first." Vance swallowed hard. "Yes." Reika didn't blink where she was lying, jaw clenched. "So why would I assist you?" Liora's hands were clenched in front of her."Because our people are slaves. They're whipped when they rebel, killed when they refuse to do what she wants. You were to be our queen and never once have any doubt you wouldn't be, and now we see. We were fools to believe anything else." Kael smiled. "Now that you've seen it? Now that it suits you?" Rowan shook his head back and forth. "No, warrior. We do not have to study that because we watched you slaughter her army ourselves. We saw you lead by strength, sense, and by honor. Ariadne leads by fear, but you—well, you lead by loyalty." Reika sighed and let her eyes stray out the window into the dark outside the coven. She no longer loved the old ones. But for her folk, for the innocent folk that had been compelled out of the grace of heaven by the atrocities of Ariadne. Had she ever wanted to leave them to their destiny? There was too much stillness and she shattered it at last. "If I do," she told him, her tone colder than metal, "then I do it for myself. I don't want to reclaim a throne. I do want to free the people—not for you." Rowan's expression was serious. "Certainly." "And then," she went on, golden eyes blazing with anger, "you will have no say in what is to be done. Your counsel is finished. I will not hear your voice." Liora nodded. "As you would desire." Kael whirled on Reika in a storm of contempt. "You're actually going to do that?" Reika stood up from the chair in front of him. "What other option would I have, Kael? Slaughter our people out of pride on my behalf?" Kael pinched the bridge of his nose. "I just. I don't trust them." "Neither do I," Reika said. "But our battle is not with them. With Ariadne." Kael paused for a moment before he grudgingly nodded. "Fine. But if they screw it up, I'll do it myself." Rowan gulped hard. "Got it." Reika breathed hard, fists raised. "Then we go to war." The coven buzzed that night. Witches and warriors made preparations for war, grinding new blades, bolstering magical defenses. Reika leaned over the balcony rail, looking out over her folk gearing up to go off to war. Kael was by her side, arms crossed. "So what's the plan?" Reika laughed hard all across her face. "We do something Ariadne doesn't expect." Kael's eyes sprang up in shock. "And that would be?" Reika whirled to confront him, gold-rimmed eyes blazing. "We win." Ariadne withdrew into her castle, a tense smile twisting onto her face. She knew it. The storm was brewing on the horizon. And this time, it would reduce them all to ashes.