Chapter 23: Master of Paradise
Redemption.
Ever since Nona had been assigned to Lady Khullic’s Retinue, she'd heard that concept get passed around by her seniors. That they patrolled for more than just the glory of the hunt, more than for honoring their White Queen and her endless love. They sought to redeem themselves.
But Nona had never looked deeper into the concept, too fresh from the Birthing Pools and too caught up in her own bout of self-loathing. Not once during her tutelage under Brother Genthol did she ever wonder why Redemption was held in such high regard by his peers.
Yet as she ascended towards Perignassi under the heated glare of his Blinded Eye, she could think of nothing else.
Despite lacking an iris, that snarling grimace conveyed annoyance held back by nothing less than absolute adherence to duty. The Blinded Eye said nothing, merely raised them higher and higher through the narrow shaft without shifting that sparking orb in any other direction.
But why?
Nona couldn’t understand what could’ve possibly happened for Lady Khullic’s name alone to inspire such anger for anyone other than the enemy. None of her brothers or sisters could compare to her as a Warrior, any Bishop would be proud to have such a devoted killing machine in their arsenal.
Yet the Blinded Eye referred to her as a Degenerate, a mocking label that Nona despised having placed upon her Lady.
But she resolved to stifle such anger as they neared the end of their ascent.
They rose out of one of numerous holes dotting a spherical chamber of immense size. Up to a floating pearlglass platform suspended in the center by pulsating runes. Golden Clouds clumped together near the top of the chamber, with dozens of floating screens hanging within them.
As they drew closer to that Platform, the din of white noise from the countless Pawns using Thoughtspeak died down. Replaced by dry, even tones that echoed through the massive room.
“Seventy-Seventh Fleet claims it has half of its Brighthomes.” A Female said with a sigh “Should I divert a Response Fleet?”
“No,” a raspy-tone hissed “we’ll have the Citadel to the east divert focus to Fleet production. The slaves want us to leave gaps in our defenses, let’s leave them wanting.”
“Will leave us with less Vitae for the frontlines,” the first voice replied “the other Knights will take note.”
“Let them make demands of the Blind if they wish, the King’s forces will need to hit harder if they wish to truly make me regret this.”
The source of that raspy voice was easy to see, floating in a bright white aura high above the platform was a single figure. His hands were raised to his sides, occasionally gesturing from one strand of Pearlglass shards to another. The strands traveled up towards a large dish which hovered over him, the glowing runes across it lighting up then going dark in response to the screens floating all around it.
Nona couldn’t tear her eye away from him, and hadn’t even realized the Mother’s Palm had stopped until it began tilting forward. Abruptly she found herself stumbling forward, collapsing to one knee whilst barely able to halt her momentum with one hand.
She looked back to see the Blinded Eye hopping off the mother’s palm and flicking that rune-covered gauntlet behind him. The floating hand followed his movements, stretching its fingers wide before clinging to his back, pressing itself to his shell and wrapping its digits under his arms as he tilted his head at Nona.
The grin was back, the sparking white energy growing larger as he nodded to Nona.
“Word from the front?” a deep grumble of a voice asked, prompting Nona to quickly look forwards as a pair of pale greaves stepped closer.
Her eye traveled up them to a cuirass of Pearlglass molded in the form of an eye, that seemed to bore into Nona as its wearer hefted the full weight of an immense halberd. It had a similar image of an eye etched into the sides of its blade, which was nearly as large as the torso of its wielder. Despite its size, the armored figure casually leaned it against his shoulder with one, then adjusted a thick helmet which was modeled into the shape of a pair of clasping hands.
Two gleaming blue lights shined from between the fingers.
Nona had found herself before another Knight.
“Ahem?” he gave a brief grunt into his free hand, making Nona realize that once more she had been caught staring “Word from the front?”
“She’s not here about that, Leften.” That raspy voice led to both the Knight and Nona looking up as the floating figure waved a knuckle back towards them “She holds the answer as to why Saulten pulled his forces back.”
“Really now?” the female voice asked, bringing Nona’s eye down to a second Knight in identical armor standing on the opposite side of the platform “Suppose you were right then, Perignassi, forgive my doubts.”
Bishop Perignassi turned, revealing a head shaped like an immense teardrop. A trio of comparatively small holes bloomed with the same white sparks that swirled within the socket of the Blinded Eye. Below them was a mouth that looked almost identical to Nona’s.
As if the face of a Pawn had bloomed into the cone-like shape Bishops were known for.
His other proportions were notably warped compared to any Pawn Nona had ever seen. Thin, long limbs and lanky hands that looked as though they could easily wrap around her.
Those thin fingers pulled aside the strands of pearlglass shards, shifting them aside as he settled the full weight of his gaze on Nona.
It wasn’t like with the Knights. Perignassi didn’t have the same aura of physical strength projected by Khullic, Formal, or even the armored duo in the room with them. No, Nona felt something deeper submit out of pure instinct, making her avert her gaze by lowering her head again the moment that gaze fell upon her.
“The Noirites endeavored to smuggle a rook through our defenses.” Perignassi recounted the words Nona had given the Blinded Eye “Perhaps hoping letting one rampage through Paradise would disrupt supply lines long enough to force their way in.”
“Truly?” Leften looked to the other knight with a chuckle “Seems we finally get to put our weapons to good use, Rigmon.”
“Unnecessary,” Perignassi waved him off “if her words are true, then it’s stranded in an empty realm near the Quadrant’s Edge. We’ll take advantage of the break in Saulten’s push to rebolster the fleets, even out the forces again and solidify defenses. We can consider aiding those stuck with the Rook afterwards.”
“What?!?” Nona’s head shot up.
“When the Noirites realize their plot’s a mess, it’ll be too late.” Rigmon nodded along “We’ll be ready for anything they’ve got! Genius, sir!”
Nona’s eye shot from her to Perignassi, who only nodded at the praise before turning his attention back to the numerous floating screens.
On each was a different view, with several showing vessels of both Blanken and Noirite design, peppering and battering one another with immense weaponry out in the emptiness of Heaven. One even showed the halls of a temple, filled with Blanken Pawns desperately holding off a Noirite boarding party.
Watching several of her kin dive for cover under an assault of dozens of arcing purple lights, Nona’s mind immediately snapped to what could be happening back with her fleet.
“Please!” she called out, interrupting Rigmon and Perignassi’s conversation “My fleet, they need-!”
Her mouth snapped shut suddenly, with Nona’s eye going wide as her body unwillingly arose to her feet and folded her arms behind her back.
“Mind yourself, Pawn.” Perignassi turned his attention back her way before raising a hand “Your blood trusts me more than it ever will you, and there’s a reason for that.”
He flicked a single finger, and Nona suddenly shot forward, her body dragging itself through the air before suddenly halting in front of Perignassi. She couldn’t even look down, her limbs locking up as the glow of Perignassi’s gaze filled her vision.
“You know who else trusts me?” Perignassi poked his head out from between the pearlglass shards before turning his gaze upwards “Our mother, the White Queen, the one true Sovereign. She trusted me to hold this Quadrant, demanded that it not fall to Noirite machinations!”
He gestured back to the screens, many shifting as he waved towards them to focus more on the numerous battles out in Heaven. Images of Pawns overlooking rivers of Vitae or assembling Blasters with the aid of Maker hands changed to warzones and drifting wrecks.
“And I have, holding out against an onslaught that would probably break lesser Bishops.” Perignassi shifted through the various images with a sigh before turning his gaze on Nona again “And do you know how I’ve managed this feat?”
Nona couldn’t even move her mouth, and when she tried using thoughtspeak she found her voice nothing more than a whisper in the back of her own mind.
“Trust.” Perignassi stated as Nona slowly began to lower back to the platform below “Our Kin know to trust my orders, trust my stratagem and tactics even if they must die for their success.”
“We’ve held out under siege for this long because of trust, Pawn!” Perignassi turned away with a grumble “I can trust our kin, from the mightiest Knight to the lowest soldier, to trust me enough to follow through with my orders to the letter!”
As her feet touched the floor, Nona found herself able to steady herself on her own. Looking from one hand to her blaster arm until Perignassi suddenly whipped up a single finger.
“Except for one.” He looked back to her “Does the annoyance in my tone suggest who it might be, Pawn?”
Silence.
Perignassi let his question hang in the air, with both of the Knights turning their attention to Nona as she tried not to buckle under the weight of just how quickly her body could betray her.
But there was only one answer. If Perignassi really could sense things through the Blinded Eye, then he had made the source of his distaste potently clear. It was the subject Nona figured would be the hardest to work her way through, but she couldn’t ignore it one way or another.
“Lady Khullic.” she answered, leading Rigmon to tilt her head.
“Khullic?” she snickered before turning to Perignassi “She stranded the Rook?”
“And sent this one to request backup,” he nodded before pulling several of the floating screens towards him “Not sure why, getting a Rook all to herself sounds like a dream for a battle-crazed lunatic like her.”
“She’s no lunatic!” Nona said whilst tightening her hand into a fist “Lady Khullic sent me specifically to gather aid for the others! Told them to bunker down-!”
“-all so she could hog the Rook to herself.” Rigmon interrupted with a casual wave of her hand “I’m sorry to say this, Sister, but Khullic has consistently ignored orders the moment she gets involved in any battle. Without fail, I could pull up several dozen instances where she’s led her retinue to abandon plans the moment she engages with the enemy.”
“A shame really,” Leften shook his head before giving a chuckle “I’ve never before seen a warrior with such latent skill on the battlefield. She’s even a rather respectable planner between engagements, yet throws it all away the moment she comes across her enemy.”
It was the reverence in Leften’s tone that gave Nona a second wind, as she quickly realized that convincing Perignassi and Rigmon that her Lady wasn’t some kind of mindless killing machine was moot. But she didn’t need to, all she needed was to convince them of the necessity of their intervention. They needed to get away from the issue of Khullic entirely.
“Well those orders were given between battles.” She nodded towards Leften before looking back to Perignassi “After an engagement with the enemy-”
Her lips suddenly snapped shut again, her body locking up as Perignassi waved a finger her way. Immediately silenced, Nona was forced to s watch as Perignassi and Rigmon shared a look before the Bishop turned away and resumed sifting through screens.
“Don’t mislead her, Leften.” Perignassi sighed “Khullic has the decency to pretend to be respectable when the weapons go dull and her hunger is sated, but she’s barely any better than the war-crazed mongrels the King’s fighting so hard to protect.”
Several screens floated closer before one displayed a singular black and red realm floating out in heaven. The screen to the left of it revealed a closer image of a land coated in heat and fire, with lesser mortals with hard rock-like shells feasting upon gray and black plants that burst forth from the hardened surface.
The area around a massive boiling lake was covered by immense, solid shroom-shaped trees which lesser mortals fought to feed from. But the image shifted to structures, trails of dark mounds with holes bored into them. Pulling back, the screen showed red-skinned beings battling a distance away.
Greater Mortals with four arms and armor fashioned from the smooth chitin of large insects fought in a large skirmish against monsters which emerged from a lake of magma. They held firm under constant assault, holding back the tide of foes with relentless fury.
“These… things, devoid of the mother’s favor.” Perignassi had the center screen shift to show two opposing armies of the same Greater Mortals fighting over a structure built into the side of a dormant volcano “Utterly tainted by the King's sickening lust for conflict, they can’t go long without waging war against themselves or their own realm.”
Perignassi groaned in disgust before gesturing towards a screen on his right, which shifted to display a massive comet.
Nona felt her faculties return to her as Perignassi gestured towards the comet, the screen shifted to show that it was carefully making its way towards the red and black realm.
“And now that we’re less than half a turn away from seeing them cleansed from heaven,” Perignassi turned to Rigmon before gesturing back towards Nona “Khullic sends this one to claim Mortals have somehow wound up in our Quadrant.”
A barely suppressed chuckle behind her made Nona look back to see the Blinded Eye holding a hand to his mouth. A quick glance from Leften made him quickly look away, but it didn’t suppress the anger boiling through Nona’s veins.
“I saw them.” She declared, prompting Perignassi to shake his head before flicking a finger her way.
Her legs dragged along the platform as she pulled closer, but she found her mouth not sealed like the last time.
“I don’t know what you think you saw, Pawn.” He loomed over her as she froze in place before him “But this Quadrant has been held since the First Wars, no record of any realms even being capable of sustaining mortal life exists and never shall.”
“Grass, trees!” She continued “Entire swarms of bugs! Check the Brighthome’s travel records. Send a single Blinded Eye to check, you can see it without even landing.”
“To insult my predecessor by implying he could overlook such a thing.” Perignassi scowled as the glowing energies from his eye sockets brightened “My Mentor was no fool, he would never have allowed-!”
“What about his predecessor sir?”
Perignassi went silent at that.
Nona dropped to the floor once again before looking back to Leften. The knight tapped a finger against the side of his head as he nodded towards their Bishop.
“I know its poor form to attribute blame in matters like this,” he lowered his free hand before shrugging “but wouldn’t that ‘Hopeless Romantic’ be the exact type to overlook a matter such as this?”
The room went quiet at that, with Perignassi and Rigmon sharing a glance before the bishop sighed and turned back to the numerous screens. Rigmon leaned past him to physically grab one of the floating screens, glancing towards those that shifted at Perignassi’s command before shifting her own to match.
“Predecessor?” Nona looked back to Leften, who offered a hand to help her up.
“Most pawns don’t think on it, but this is Perignassi the Third.” He glanced towards Perignassi before chuckling “Though they all share a name, Perignassi the First didn’t have the same… affinity for stratagem that the others are known for.”
“A Naïve fool more focused on purposely malforming his own Pawns rather than utilizing them efficiently.” Perignassi grumbled as the screens before him finally shifted to show the realm Khullic’s retinue had been stuck on “Though a misguided idiot, I must defend him in this regard, Lord Leften. The First Wars were a time of low scale conflict, a pale precursor to the Sovereign’s War. The First Bishop wouldn’t even have to think on mortals, just the battlefields…. he was… assigned…”
Perignassi’s words trailed off as he leaned closer to the screen before him, the room going silent as the others focused their attention to him. Nona looked to Leften in concern, but he just shrugged.
Rigmon tapped her fingers against her side several times before clearing her throat. When Perignassi didn’t respond, she stepped closer and reached up towards him. Yet the moment her hand neared his floating form, she froze.
A sharp crack rang out as a brief spray of Vitae erupted from the sudden fracture in the side of Perignassi’s head. Rigmon gasped and pulled back as a small piece of wet Pearlglass went sailing over her.
“Bishop!” The Blinded Eye shouted, tearing past Nona and Leften only to skid to a stop as Perignassi waved a hand back towards him.
Despite a piece of his head rupturing, Perignassi never once took his gaze from the screens before him. Instead, he just brought a hand to the seeping wound and pressed his palm to it with a long, drawn-out sigh.
Nobody moved, with Nona looking from Leften to Rigmon and shuddering at the sight of the Knights staring in silence as Perignassi slowly turned away from the screens.
“Perhaps… an investigation is in order.” He finally stated as he fully floated down until his feet pressed to the floor “Perhaps I should see this realm for myself, Pawn.”
“Sir?” Rigmon asked as the floating dish began lowering as well.
“I’ll take one of the reserve Temples.” Perignassi reached up to help lower the base of the dish onto the flat tip of his head “With minor staffing we should be able to leave as soon as-”
“You’re going yourself?!?” Rigmon recoiled, tone filling with confusion as Perignassi nodded.
“Really!” hope bloomed in Nona’s veins, only for Leften to step between them and grab the shoulder of the Blinded Eye.
“Sir, I’d recommend taking the Pawn’s suggestion and merely sending an Eye instead.” He stated “If there’s a Rook still present then-”
“I can see without even landing.” Perignassi pulled his hand away, revealing a warped patch of Pearlglass where the wound was before “You two won’t be without me for long
The dish settled in, shifting with each movement as the numerous pearlglass strands began linking together until they formed a thick veil along its rim. Folding his arms behind his back, Perignassi tilted his head forward until his eyes could no longer be seen past the rim of the dish.
“Sir, are you okay?” Leften asked “Bishops aren’t made for combat. I know Rigmon and you have gotten close over strategy stuff, but we’re bodyguards. We’re supposed to guard you, not leave you alone in the edge of the Quadrant.”
“Then come with me, Leften.” Perignassi walked past him “Rigmon can manage things until we return.”
“Sir?!” Rigmon recoiled even harder, with Perignassi turning to face her as he lifted the rim of the dish.
“No worries, sister. I’ll leave an eye to keep you up to date on things.” He smiled whilst gesturing to the still confused Blinded Eye “We’ll return as soon as I’ve seen to this matter. I trust you.”
Those words stifled whatever Rigmon was going to say, her stance relaxing as she took a moment to look over the screens floating around the platform before nodding.
“Right.” She declared before looking back to Perignassi “I’ll have things ready and waiting for your return, sir!”
Nona couldn’t hold back the smile forming on her face. She’d done it. Something in their intel about that Realm must’ve convinced Perignassi that there was merit to her words. Something big enough to cause a rupture in his veins apparently.
Did they already have information about the lesser mortals there?
Nona shook her head before that question could take root. All that mattered was getting aid for Khullic’s retinue. Even a partially staffed Temple was enough, but another Knight too? The Noirites didn’t stand a chance. Lady Khullic had been right, no matter how much Perignassi or Rigmon wanted to besmirch her name.
She looked to Leften, preparing to thank him for aiding her in the conversation, when a lanky hand wrapped around her shoulders, and she found Perignassi staring at her with a grimace.
“And you,” he nodded ahead as a massive Mother’s Palm floated up to the edge of the platform for them “I have questions. Many…. many, questions.”
