A blast rang out at midnight, jolting Lysette awake.  She rubbed her eyes and looked around.  It was the middle of the night, and yet the blood red sky shone nearly as bright as the day, the crimson moon above permeating its eerie glow through the window onto her bedroom floor.

What’s going on here?  Monsters?  Or…

Lysette jumped to her feet, stopping only to slip on her shoes before leaving her bedroom.  Another blast rang out as she stepped into the hallway of her small home, this one so intense that it rumbled the ground beneath her feet, sending her crashing against the wall as she struggled to remain upright.  She rushed to her front door, grabbing a jacket, a few healing herbs, and a wooden sword on her way out— it wasn’t much, only really useful for fending off wild coyotes and similar, but it was better than nothing.

Outside it was quiet, unnaturally so.  Birds and beasts and even bugs were silent.  Even the air itself was entirely still, not a single leaf rustling in the woods just behind her home.  

The entire night was alight in the eerie red glow of the blood moon high overhead, crimson rays shining down with an oppressive aura that seemed to sap both strength and morale, replacing it with despair and lethargy.  As her mind spun, making what sense she could of her surroundings, she looked around.  A billowing smoke cloud rose from the south, near the center of the town of Osstia.  

Mother?  Father?  Celica?  What’s going on?  Are you okay?

She didn’t know what to do.  Investigating the town or trying to flee both seemed like options, but before she could choose, the silence was broken by marching footsteps and the clanging of armor.

“Sergeant!  We’ve found another home!”

“You know your orders, soldier!  Search the home!  Leave none alive!”

Lysette’s heart raced as she absorbed the implications.  This was a coordinated attack against the entire town.  But who was behind it, and why?  

The footsteps grew louder, and before Lysette could start to formulate a plan, she raced off into the nearby woods, desperately hoping for some cover to evade this invading force as she tried to reach the town before it was too late.  She pushed forward into the trees, willing herself onward even as her muscles grew stiff and her calves burned.  Her throat became dry and scratchy both from the exertion and the overwhelming anxiety filling her being, but there was no chance to rest and catch her breath.

Another explosion shook the ground, and a flaming plume briefly lit the night sky over Osstia, forcing Lysette to look away as the bright flash seared her eyes.  Two soldiers marched toward her before stopping at a small grove only a few dozen feet away.  Lysette dropped to her knees and hid behind a large tree, covering her mouth with her hands as she listened to their conversation.

“Any sign of the townspeople trying to escape?  His Holiness will be most displeased if we let any of the heretics survive.  The last thing we need is for one of them to slip away and find succor with Thosse or Vorcal or any of the other gods!”

“None so far, but we will double our search!  For the Glory of Asterion!”

“Praise be unto Lord Asterion!”  The clang of metal armor sounded as the two saluted one another and split off in opposite directions.

Lysette remained silent as she hid, though she feared the racing of her heart would give her away.  Asterion was a name she recognized – the name of the God of the Moon, and the deity officially worshiped by the people of the kingdom of Elithria to the west.  And Thosse and Vorcal were two other gods, of Ocean and Fire, respectively.  They too were worshiped by various kingdoms, towns, or people working in fields related to their domains.

Just what was going on between the various churches and their gods?  Relations between Elithria and Domaria had always been peaceful in the twenty four years Lysette had been alive, if sometimes tense.  But now to devolve into a full-scale invasion launched under cover of moonlight, or a terrorist operation sanctioned by the Church of Asterion, without so much as warning by the Domarian capital?

As the clanging of armor went quiet, Lysette stood up and searched around for any signs that she’d been spotted.  Heading back to Osstia seemed like a death sentence – she had to get far away and seek safety elsewhere, and pray to whomever might listen that her parents and sister might find a way to survive.  

East to the capital of Domark seemed the best course of action.  But could she make it?  Lysette gripped her weapon as she traveled through the underbrush, suppressing her fear as best she could.  She’d survived this far, whether through luck, wit, or a bit of divine favor of her own, and she chose to believe in all three as she pressed onward.

A chill wind blew – the first movement of the air she’d felt all night, followed by the rustle of leaves from the trees all around.  The night air sent shivers down Lysette’s spine and arms, but despite the temperature, Lysette felt neither cold nor calm as leaves fluttered into her blonde locks.  Only a primal rush of determination to survive and rage toward the Church of Asterion and a desire to see them brought to justice.

“You wish for vengeance?”  A strange voice, calm yet stern, effeminate yet powerful, rang in Lysette’s ears.  She wanted to cry out, to answer, but footsteps snapped her back to the present.

“Corporal!  I’ve spotted a villager and will pursue!”

“Affirmative, Private!”

Shit!  Lysette summoned all her strength and rushed through the underbrush, paying little attention to scrapes against her knees and calves as she sought shelter or escape.

“Lunar Bolt!” a young man’s voice called out.

A moment later, a ray of crimson light passed just by Lysette’s neck.  Then, before her eyes, a tree ahead of her exploded into a fierce conflagration.  She dropped to her knees to escape the smoke and raging flames erupting all around her.  Looking around for an opportunity  Her lungs burned both from exertion and the smoke building in her lungs, but any pain was an afterthought as she continued onward.

Ahead in the distance was the smoldering ruins of the home of Jacoub and Marcelle, and just beside was a field of maize and other grains.  With no other options, Lysette decided to wager everything on the possibility of hiding within the cornstalks.  Two more Lunar Bolts shot out, one on either side of her, and the resulting explosions and their shockwaves knocked her to the ground.  But there was something odd – any one of them should have been able to hit her considering the speed of their attacks.

They’d made their intentions to kill known earlier.  So why hesitate now?

Lysette crawled under the thick smoke all around her as the entire field burned. She could no longer hear the rustling of the soldier’s metal armor rattling about, but the crimson moon still glowed ominously high overhead.  It seemed much bigger than the moon normally did, and its light was filled with a thirst for blood.  No doubt it was the work of Asterion himself, and this senseless slaughter of her friends and fellow townsfolk was some mass tribute to this greedy, self-important deity.

If it were up to me, I’d make him pay!  Pay for killing so many innocent people!

“Is that so?”  The voice rang in Lysette’s head again.  “You seek to take back that which was stolen from you.  Is that right, Lysette?”

There was that voice again.  But who was it, and what did it want?  It didn’t sound like anyone Lysette knew.

“Who are you?”  Lysette asked with her thoughts, not sure how to respond to the voice.

“Zarielle.”

That name was also familiar to her – she’d heard it before, but she couldn’t pinpoint where.  But there was no time to figure it out.  She rushed into the cornfield and zigged and zagged past the stalks, always moving generally toward the east, but never in exactly the same direction for too long.  Her mind filled with a dim hope that by obscuring her steps, making her movement difficult to trace in the cornfields, that somehow, she would survive.

An eerie pulse of the blood moon snuffed those delusions, and another conflagration just ahead of her made clear the folly of her efforts.  The soldiers of Asterion had tracked her— perhaps the notions of Asterion’s moniker as the ‘all-seeing eye’ weren’t just for show.  

One approached from in front of her, pushing the flames aside.  Another caught up to her, and those two were joined by two others cleaving a path toward her from either side, carving their way through the field as though it were nothing.  All were heavily armed and armored.  Their swords were silvery like the moonlight was when not drenched in blood, and their armor a pale white.  Each of their breastplates bore an insigne of a crescent moon, with a single, unblinking, all-seeing eye within the moon’s interior.  The crest of the Church of Asterion.

Another explosion shook the ground, knocking Lysette to the ground.  She gritted her teeth, seething as the men approached.

“You’re surrounded,” the soldier to her left said.  “I suggest you surrender and make this easier on all of us.  Our god blesses the righteousness of cause.  You cannot win.”

“And if I do surrender, then what?”  Lysette crawled to her knees, clutching her weapon to help her climb back to her feet.  “You’ll spare my life?  Take me as your prisoner?  Is that what you’re going to say?”

“Something like that, yes,” the soldier behind her responded.  “Surrender and we promise this will be quick.”

Lysette scowled.  “And you expect me to believe that shit?  Screw you, and screw the god you worship!  I already overheard your orders.  ‘Leave none alive.’”

Pain was in her voice and tears of anger in her eyes as she screamed at the soldier in front of her.  “I don’t know what your twisted, grotesque, disease-ridden, piece of filth of a deity wants.   Or why you’re killing townspeople who haven’t done a damn thing except live their lives in peace, and I couldn’t care less!  All of you, just die!”

Lysette launched herself forward, charging the soldier or knight or cleric or inquisitor— whatever he was— with all the strength she could muster, but it was for naught.  Her wooden sword bounced off the man’s magical armor as though it were nothing.  But she charged forward again, slashing with all of her might, not caring for her own life or limb or anything else except to try to inflict some damage, however trivial, however inconsequential it might be.  

The inquisitor merely stood there, unfazed by every blow as Lysette screamed and cursed at him until, with a single swing with the back of his weapon, he knocked her to the ground.  He towered over her and raised a small charm of some type into the air beside him.

“Your body will die, yes.  But you may rejoice, for your soul, your spark of life will live on.  It will serve as fuel for His Holiness, and for Lord Asterion as he seeks to ascend to the Mantle of Creation.  May you find eternal bliss as part of His Eternal Being.”

The crystal embedded with the charm hummed an eerie tune, a somber dirge, as threads of light circled around Lysette’s spent form, with only her hatred and her rage tethering her to consciousness.  She tried to fend the encroaching cage of light off, swinging her sword toward the myriad beams, but to no avail.  She tried to break out of the cage, but as her shoulder slammed into one of the threads, a searing shock of pain and energy surged through her, forcing her back, shrinking into the center of the cage as it grew smaller, each movement a clock counting down to inevitability.

And then time stood still.  The strands of light on all sides stopped.  The eerie hum of the crystal went silent.  The inquisitors remained motionless.  Only Lysette could move, though, in the tiny cage of light, she could not move far.  The voice from before echoed in her mind, at once quiet, and yet louder than the roars of the mightiest beasts at the same time.  A piercing pain filled Lysette, like a knife driving its way through her temple, penetrating her very brain and her soul beyond.

“Now is the time to choose, Lysette.  If you remain as you are, only oblivion and eternal damnation await you.  But, if you forge a contract with me, you may yet have a chance of surviving this night.”

“Zarielle?  Who are you?  Show yourself!”

“My my, my dear Lysette.  Even on the cusp of death, you seek demands of the one being who might save you from your inevitable fate?”

“A– A contract?”  Why a contract?  Why me?  Why now?  She did her best not to transmit those other questions to this ‘Zarielle’ being.

Zarielle laughed, a thick, hearty noblewoman’s laugh.  “I will lend you a portion of my power.  And in return, you will serve as my champion.  As my Godslayer.”

“Your Godslayer?”  What is she talking about?  Lysette had never heard of such a thing.

“You said you wanted to make Asterion pay for killing your friends, your townsfolk.  You said you wished for vengeance against him and his followers?  Answer, Lysette!”

Despite the cryptic words of Zarielle, the choice was spelled out for Lysette.  Whatever would happen later as a result would happen.

“Yes.  If I had that power, I would not rest until Asterion died at my feet, or until I died in the attempt!”

“Then forge the contract!  Accept me, and I shall grant you the Spark that you might wield against the gods themselves!”

Lysette clenched her fist, her eyes filled with a newfound blend of justice and bloodlust.

“Zarielle, let us make them suffer!”

RiaCorvidiva

For those who might be unaware, I have another work on this platform.  You can check out The Legacy of Dragonfire here.