31b. Subjugation
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Content Warning: violence, blood, entombment

=:= Zoe =:=

Her instincts were screaming at her to flee, to hide, to be anywhere but here.

At first Zoe just wanted to march up to him and give him a smack. The way he was talking down to Cindy was so arrogant, so stuck-up.

The guy looked and sounded like some rich man's soft spoiled son. A wealthy man-child who'd never had to work hard, and never earned any of the advantages and luxuries he had.

Even his clothes were pretentious, Zoe thought. He looked like a gaudy extra off the set of some nineteenth-century period movie. His double-breasted navy blue jacket was covered in shiny gold buttons and gold trim, and he even had a flashy gold ring with a big diamond on his right pinky-finger. His pants were beige, and he wore knee-high shiny black leather boots.

Apart from the silly outfit he looked like a normal guy. He was about five-foot-ten, average build, average looks as far as Zoe was concerned. He had short blond hair with a bit of a curl to it, green eyes, and fair skin. He looked about thirty years old.

It was almost hard to take him seriously, with the way he was dressed and the way he talked.

One thing Zoe found confusing was that he seemed to think Cindy was their Goddess. She figured if this guy really were a God, surely he'd be able to tell Cindy was just a powerful sorceress.

Once Alexander started tossing the divine magic around though, things got a lot more intense and Zoe forgot all about her confusion and her opinions on his fashion sense.

She cringed as she saw Alexander's eyes light up with a bright yellow glow when he was doing his God-stuff. And then Cindy's eyes glowed that lilac-purple colour when she responded.

As she watched, Zoe soon realized that Cindy wasn't really doing much fighting. She seemed to be focused mainly on defending herself.

Alexander's expression alternated between smiles and sneers as he paced back and forth. He tried flinging death, fire, and lightning at Cindy. Each time, she just stayed put and dispelled or deflected his attacks.

"You're outclassed, child!" Alexander stated. He flung another death spell at her. "I can see you're overwhelmed!" Lightning shot from his hands at her. "You'll soon tire, and then your defences will fail!" He followed up with yet another death spell.

After the three attacks, Cindy flung the last death spell back at him.

Finally Zoe figured out what she was doing. Her girlfriend was using the magical-defence spell she'd come up with for the amulets. The way the spell worked, the trick that allowed it to protect against stronger attacks, was that it used the attacking spell's magic to power itself.

Zoe knew Cindy wasn't tiring or weakening under Alexander's attacks. She was building up a charge of energy, letting him power her up further with each strike. Meanwhile, Cindy was barely using any of her own power to defend herself, and she only tried attacking once for every three or four strikes he sent her way.

It wasn't a foolproof plan though. Zoe knew Cindy still needed to stay alert, she couldn't risk slipping up. And when she did use the stored power, she'd need to use it in such a way that he couldn't block or defend. She'd probably only get one chance to use this trick so it would have to count.

That's when she figured out how she could help. If Zoe could distract him, create some kind of diversion, she'd get his attention off Cindy. That might give her the chance to do whatever she'd been storing up energy for.

Zoe started creeping towards him, while staying off to the side. Hopefully with his attention on Cindy, he wouldn't notice her slowly moving around and approaching him from the left.

Alexander continued talking and flinging magic at Cindy for another minute or two before he stopped, frowning.

Zoe suddenly worried he'd figured out what Cindy was up to, or he'd noticed her stalking him. She'd only managed to get about halfway to where she wanted to be, she was still five meters or so from him, further around to his left side.

"I tire of this," he stated, his eyes still on the tiny blonde. "You are not making good sport, child. Time to end it."

He raised both his arms up as his eyes glowed like the sun. A wide column of blinding golden light suddenly punched straight down from above, like a literal fist of God. It had to be five or six meters across, and Cindy was caught right in the middle of it.

Zoe raised her arms up to shield her eyes, as her hair stood on end and her tail puffed out in alarm. This was an order of magnitude stronger than anything he'd done so far, and with a lurch she realized Alexander had been holding back all this time.

The column of light burned for several seconds, before it finally dissipated.

Zoe lowered her arms and blinked, staring. Cindy was still there, standing inside a large circle of dead, sterile ground.

She looked weak and weary, but intact. There was smoke or steam rising up from her small body, and her hair was frazzled, like some of the ends had been burnt off. Her shoulders were hunched up a bit, and there was a slight grimace on her face.

Alexander gloated, "You're almost done, child. Surrender and I will make it quick."

Cindy frowned at him and said, "You talk too much." Then she stuck out her tongue, and opened her hands.

Twin bolts of blinding energy lanced out from her palms, striking him in the chest. It was the same sort of magic he'd just hit her with, but condensed from a huge column into two tight laser-like beams.

He staggered backwards a few paces under the impact, nearly stumbling on the steps of the mansion behind him. When it was over, there were two fist-sized holes burned through his clothes, and the smell of charred flesh hung in the air. He appeared winded, but Alexander stayed on his feet.

It looked like he was about to strike out at Cindy again, and that's when Zoe made her move. As fast as she could, she dashed at him then pounced. She was hoping to knock him down, or at least grab him and grapple him for a bit.

The God was surprised, but his reflexes were faster than Zoe expected. His left arm shot out and he caught her by the neck.

Zoe felt Alexander's hand locked around her throat. She could barely breath, he was holding her up and out at arm's length. Her bare feet were dangling above the ground as she grabbed at his wrist with both hands.

He started saying something about how she'd sacrificed herself for nothing, when her instincts took over.

She pulled herself up, her fingernails sinking deep into his fore-arm. Her bare feet pressed into his side as her toes dug into the soft spot under his arm. Then she kicked with all her might. At the same time she was able to twist her neck far enough out of his grasp that she could get her teeth into the back of his hand.

Alexander let out a surprised, angry yell as he shook her off of him, throwing her clear.

Zoe landed on her feet but rolled once from the momentum, doing a neat little summersault. She ended up on her feet again, still facing him.

She could taste blood on her lips and realized it was his, he was bleeding from his hand. The God's fore-arm was also bloody, with deep furrows carved into it through the sleeve of his jacket. There were even a half dozen bloody rips down his side, under his arm.

She tried not to show it, but she was feeling as surprised as Alexander looked. She didn't have claws before!

Her distraction did what she'd hoped, and Alexander was focused on her. He raised his right hand, about to end her with a blast of magic as Cindy appeared right behind him, standing on the bottom step of his mansion.

Zoe gave her a huge opportunity, and all she'd done with it was use a teleport spell?!

Then Cindy reached out and snapped the anti-magic collar around his neck before he realized she was there.

Alexander's eyes went wide and a look of horror appeared on his face. His hands shot up, clawing at the collar as Cindy watched.

Zoe felt something happen, like something big and magical had just begun. She knew the collar was supposed to negate magic, but she had no idea what that would do if it was put on a God. From the curious look on Cindy's face, she probably didn't know what to expect either.

Alexander let out a shriek as he got his fingers under the collar and desperately tried to pull it off of himself. The collar was starting to glow now, a dull red at first but it quickly grew brighter and shifted to orange.

Cindy frowned, and then she started to look worried.

The stricken God sank to his knees, letting out another shout of pain. Suddenly there was a flash, and what looked like a shockwave of pure magic pulsed outwards from the collar.

Zoe was about three or four meters away from the guy, and the shockwave hit her before she could even blink. For a split second it felt like every cell in her body wanted to go in a different direction. Then she hit the ground and rolled. She didn't seem to be hurt, but she was definitely winded. She realized she'd been thrown backwards another five or six meters by the impact.

Cindy was still on her feet, and standing only a meter or two away from the struggling God. Whatever that shockwave was, it had basically gone off right in her face.

Behind the two of them, Zoe saw most of the windows on the huge manor house had been shattered. And the structure itself looked sort of...wrong. It wasn't all straight angles and lines anymore, things were crooked in ways that her eyes couldn't quite comprehend.

Her attention was drawn back to Alexander. The collar was still secured around his neck, and it was glowing even brighter now.

Cindy shouted at her, "Duck! It's gonna go again!"

Zoe hit the deck, laying face-down on the ground with her arms protecting her head. She felt a chest-rattling thump through the ground at the same time the second magical shockwave passed over her. This one was more like a harsh buzz of magic, and didn't affect her as much as the first one.

She looked up, and now the manor house looked even more disjointed and wrong. It was like she was looking at it through a broken funhouse mirror. The large trees that lined the wide manicured lawn were similarly warped and misshapen now too.

Cindy was still on her feet, she was standing right infront of Alexander now. Zoe couldn't see what she was doing, or trying to do. The God was still on his knees, still clutching at the iron ring locked around his neck.

Zoe felt her hairs standing up and she ducked again. A moment later a third magical shockwave pulsed outwards across the land. Like the previous one, it washed overtop of her with another strong buzz of magic.

She looked up once more. This time, Cindy and Alexander were both gone.

The manor house, the trees, even the manicured lawn she was laying on, were all...twisted. It was like someone had let reality melt slightly then given it a shake. Zoe still seemed to be whole and intact, but everything around her was wrong in a way that hurt her eyes to look at and left her feeling dizzy and disoriented.

It took a few moments to get her senses settled, then Zoe slowly got to her feet. Before she could start searching for Cindy, she felt another buzz of magic around her. The surreal vista around her faded away, as she was transported elsewhere.

• • • • •

It was night-time here. Zoe was standing next to a huge bonfire, atop a hill somewhere. The sky overhead was black and starless, under her feet the ground was hard-packed dirt. The hilltop was mostly flat, and about twenty meters across. The fire was taller than her, roaring about two meters high. It was about that big across, too. She couldn't tell how tall the hill was, the surroundings were too dark to see what was out there. The view was further obscured by a palisade of sharpened wood posts, that stood atop an earthen bank which encircled the hilltop, partway down the hill.

It looked like something out of the iron-age, Zoe thought. Some sort of ancient hill-fort.

"Sorry about that," Cindy said from behind, startling her.

Zoe jumped then spun around, her tail puffed and twitchy again. The light coming off the fire danced over Cindy's young features, and the way the shadows moved on her small face was unsettling.

She took a couple deep breaths and forced herself to settle down, then frowned at Cindy and asked "What happened?! Where are we?"

Cindy sighed, "So it turns out, the collar doesn't 'destroy' magic as such, it siphons magic away and feeds it back to Alexander. So any time the collar was put on someone, it was feeding power into him. When I stuck it on him, it was like a feedback loop or something? Like he's a God, so he's got a huge amount of power right? And the collar was trying to suck it out of him then shove it back in again at the same time. Only it was way more than the collar could actually handle, so it started leaking out in those pulses."

"Shit," Zoe frowned. "Was it dangerous? I mean, it didn't feel great getting clobbered by the first one. And it did some really weird stuff to his estate."

"I'm not sure," Cindy admitted. "It might have just tapered off, like every time power leaked out that was less going back into him? So like, if we just let it run, eventually it might have drained him. But on the other hand, it might have broken reality and unmade the whole world." She shrugged, "So I figured I needed to stop it."

Zoe stared at her. "How'd you stop it?"

Cindy motioned Zoe to follow, and they walked around to the other side of the bonfire.

Looking very out-of-place in the hill-fort setting stood what appeared to be a life-sized statue. He looked like a warrior, carved from white marble. He wore armour that looked like an ancient-Greek style, and had a sword in a scabbard hanging at his side, from straps that went across his chest and over his opposite shoulder.

Zoe spotted the iron ring locked around the statue's neck. She looked back at Cindy again and asked, "Is this Alexander?"

"Sort of?" Cindy replied. "He's inside. It's a statue of Diomedes, I thought that was appropriate. I basically entombed him in stone. It's like suspended animation or whatever? Like time doesn't pass in there. He's not suffering or anything, he just doesn't exist." She added, "If he ever got free though, the collar's still on him so he's basically screwed either way."

Zoe frowned. It sounded like a pretty terrible fate, but then this was the guy who wanted to kill her and all her friends, so she wasn't going to shed any tears about it.

"Ok... And why are we here? And where is here, exactly?"

Cindy grinned, "This is Caer Aeronwy, the Fortress of Aeronwy. She's the Goddess of War. Or one goddess of war anyways. A Welsh one I guess? She's Dôn, Ceridwen, and Arianrhod's sister. Basically this place is Aeronwy's court, her secret private personal hideout."

Zoe's frown deepened as she stared at Cindy. "I get the feeling there's some very long stories that you need to tell me, cutie. But first... Is it over? Did we win? You destroyed their headquarters, killed a bunch of them, and now you've trapped the big bad guy in a statue. So it's over?"

"Yeah, more or less." Cindy nodded. "I think the last step is the Goddesses are going to kill me. Just to tidy up loose ends."

Zoe blinked, "What?!"

Cindy nodded, "Yeah. That war goddess I mentioned, Aeronwy? They embodied her in me. They knew she'd be able to defeat the Brotherhood. But they were also scared of her. I guess she's dangerous, unstable, whatever. If they'd woke her with the rest of them inside of Nikki, they'd be stuck with her? So they split her out and embodied her in me, to keep her isolated. Now they just hafta kill me, and Aeronwy will go back to sleep or whatever, and the world will be safe."

Zoe glared, demanding "How could they do this to you?! We can't just let them kill you!"

"I let them do it, Zoe." Cindy sighed. "It was the only way to save you and the coven."

Zoe shook her head, "I won't let them kill you! There has to be another way..."

She looked around, trying to think of something, hoping for some idea or inspiration. There wasn't really anything else here though. Just the bonfire and the statue.

Zoe frowned, "Wait. If this Aeronwy is such a badass, where is she? I mean, she's not here in her fortress. And since you rescued me, it's just been you the whole time hasn't it? I haven't seen you act especially mean or warlike."

Cindy shrugged again, "Yeah, I kinda trapped her? She's still inside me, but since we found you, she's been locked inside. As soon as she was in there I kinda changed the locks, and I've been reinforcing things too, so she stays trapped."

Zoe blinked, staring at the tiny blonde. It took her a few moments to process what Cindy had just said.

"So they stuck the most dangerous badass Goddess they knew in your head, and you defeated her and locked her up?"

"I mean, it wasn't like I took her on face to face or anything," Cindy said, looking bashful. "I just sorta left a little trap for her, and when it sprung it set me free and she got caught in it."

"Can she get out?" Zoe asked. "I mean, if she's locked away then you're safe right? No need for the Goddess to kill you?"

Cindy frowned, then said "Huh... Let me try something."

That purple glow returned to her eyes as a second statue faded into existence, standing next to the first.

This one was of a warrior woman. She looked Celtic rather than Greek. She stood tall and proud, wearing what looked like leather armour decorated with Celtic knots. She was a mature woman, possibly about thirty years old, with her hair cut short. She was holding a spear in her left hand, and in her right she held a short sword, raised and ready for battle.

Cindy's eyes were still glowing purple as she stared at the statue, and Zoe saw the statue's eyes glow red for a few seconds. Then the light faded from both the statue's eyes and from Cindy's.

"There. That should do it." Cindy nodded.

"Do what?" Zoe asked, feeling lost and confused again. "What did you do? And how are you even doing all this?"

Cindy grinned, "Ok so since I'm her vessel, me and the goddess are connected, right? So I can access her power, and since she's trapped she can't stop or control me. So what I just did was create this statue of Aeronwy, then I stuffed most of her inside it. Kinda like how Alex is in the other statue."

"Why only most of her?" Zoe frowned. "Why not all of her?"

Cindy sighed, "We're bound for life. Like Nikki is bound to the other three, I'm bound to her. But with Nikki, the Goddesses are in control of that connection. Now I'm in control of this one." After a moment she added, "So actually, it's more like she's bound to me I guess?"

"So can you still tap in to her power?" Zoe asked. "And what about Alexander, can you tap into his too?"

Cindy blushed, "Maybe... Me and him aren't like connected or anything though, but I could probably figure something out." She shrugged and added, "The main thing is, they're both safely locked away and neither of them is going to go on any more murder-sprees."

Zoe stared at her again, then took a couple steps back. Not out of fear, she just wanted to get a proper look at the tiny sorceress.

"So let me get this straight, Cindy." Zoe said. "Our Goddess tried to trick you and planned to double-cross you, but you saw through it. Then you volunteered for the suicide mission anyways, to save me and the others. Then you tricked and defeated the badass Goddess that they hoped would win our war. Then you went ahead and won the war anyways, and beat the big bad guy yourself. And oh yeah, he turned out to be another God."

Cindy was still blushing, "You're making it sound a lot bigger than it was, Zoe."

She pointed at the two statues, "Cutie, you defeated two Gods today."

"You helped!" Cindy protested. "It was a team effort."

Zoe smiled. "Cindy, I really want to give you a big hug and a bunch of kisses, but you look like a ten-year-old kid. Is there any way you could make yourself older again?"

"Oh, right!" Cindy giggled, then her eyes glowed purple once more. Her body shimmered and she returned to normal, looking around sixteen like before. At the same time her clothes shifted back to one of her typical outfits. She was now wearing dark leggings, an oversized black tunic top, and dark sneakers.

"I guess the curse is still in effect," Zoe asked, "So you can't make yourself properly nineteen?"

Cindy shook her head, "I'm pretty sure I could look however I wanted right now, but... This is me. This is how I look."

Zoe smiled, "Yeah. It's you."

She stepped closer and wrapped her arms around her girlfriend.

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