Elegy for a Star

A patrol of the Corps’ common guard moved down the hallway. Mairaela peered around the corner, watching them depart before she waved to Gwendolyn and Joyona and sneaking ahead. Slipping behind the patrol and into the adjacent hallway. A door labeled “Echoshaping” stood in the way. Mairaela tested it, but it was locked, so she slipped a hand into her pocket for the key that Scirocca gave her.

Whispering, Gwendolyn asked, “Let’s see if we can trust her.”

Mairaela fit key to lock and gave it a slow turn, eventually hearing a sharp click. “Looks like it,” Mairaela responded. Before she could open the door, Joyona rounded both of them and opened it up on her own. Mairaela and Gwendolyn followed the Evigkin through a rocky tunnel until they entered an equally rocky room ahead of it. There were bottles and books lying around, but most noticeable was a red ledger open upon the desk.

Joyona approached it first, then stepped aside. Mairaela saw the page had bloody marks upon it, smudged into the writing. The words were a scrawled, illegible mess, but there were a few words that Mairaela could make out.

It was Gwendolyn that put a voice to them, though. “It says ‘demon.’” Mairaela bit her lip, and Gwendolyn took the ledger before slipping it into her belt. “Let’s go,” the knight said.

“Gwen,” Mairaela said, reaching out for the knight’s arm, “Gwen, what are you going to do?”

“She knows, Mairaela,” Gwen tugged her arm away and trudged into the tunnel ahead. Joyona and Mairaela followed in after her.

Eventually they came to some narrow passages and though Mairaela and Gwen were able to slip through, Joyona had to bow out. “I’ll watch behind us,” she said, “Good luck.”

By the time the passageway opened up into a larger room, Gwendolyn was already hurrying ahead, running down a staircase toward a hexagonal platform. Mairaela looked ahead and saw a woman in white standing over a raised slab. Tess was on that slab, unmoving. Mairaela’s heart ached at the sight of her.

“What are you doing here?” The woman in white asked, pulling her hood back to unveil a writhing mass of yellow snakes atop her head.

There was a flash of steel in Gwendolyn’s hand and the knight bull rushed the woman, jamming a knife into her flank. Mairaela gasped, hurrying down the stairs as quickly as possible. “Gwendolyn!” Mairaela shouted. She spotted Tess upon the slab, eyes, ears and nose bleeding in thin rivulets that ran down her face.

The woman screamed, the snakes on her head lashing out and biting Gwendolyn upon the face and neck. The knife was twisted and wrenched free, splattering red upon the woman’s robes. When Mairaela got to the bottom, Gwendolyn was bleeding from a half-dozen punctures in her brow, cheeks and chin, but the woman—Mairaela assumed she must be Madame Pava—was bleeding all over her robes.

“What are you… what are you doing?” The snake-haired woman gasped, “Why-..?”

Gwendolyn stood over her, knife dripping red, “What did you do to her? Tell me and I’ll get you a healer.”

“Gwen…” Mairaela reached out to touch the knight’s shoulder, but Gwendolyn pulled away.

“I was… unshackling her gift,” Pava replied, coughing up blood.

Gwendolyn gripped the blade tightly. Her hand was shaking. “Not good enough,” Gwen responded, “What did you do?”

“Nothing,” Pava spat, “Get me a… a healer, you lunatic..”

Grabbing her by the collar, Gwendolyn raised the knife, pointed it at her, and shouted at her, “Tell me what you did!”

Pava looked past Gwendolyn and toward Mairaela, “Get her off of me, I haven’t done anything!”

“She’s been gone for seven weeks!” Gwendolyn screamed. Mairaela could see tears welling in the knight’s eyes, “What did you do!?”

“Gwendolyn, stop!” Mairaela shouted, “You’ve already gone too far!”

“Look what she did to Tess!” Gwendolyn snapped. Mairaela looked back at Tess. She could only barely see the rise and fall of her chest, but it was extremely subtle. Mairaela backed down. 

Gwen brought the knife to Pava’s neck and let the point dig into her semi-scaly flesh. Pava gave a shrill cry, writhing frantically to get away from Gwendolyn’s blade. “Tell me, or your stupid, fucking lie is going to be the last thing you ever manage to hiss out,” Gwendolyn jerked Pava’s head to the side to keep her neck exposed. One of the snakes on her head lashed out to bite Gwen on the wrist, but the Dame sliced it clean off with her blade.

Pava’s teeth were chattering, before she finally shouted, “I ran tests! I pushed her further than I needed to, but it was for her own good! She doesn’t know who she is; She doesn’t know who she carries in her mind!”

“And you do?” Gwen asked, calming somewhat. The knife pulled away from Pava’s throat.

“I-..” Pava stammered, “I, I-.. I'm close! I just.. I need to run some more tests!”

Mairaela spoke softly, “We should just take her and-...”

She heard the squelch of a blade running through flesh and turned to Gwendolyn to see she’d rammed the knife across Pava’s throat. Mairaela’s eyes were wide as she muttered, “Gwen, what did you do?”

“She knew,” Gwendolyn grumbled, “She knew and she would’ve told them.” Gwendolyn took a deep breath, shoulders rising and falling, “And they would have done horrible things to Tess.” She looked over Tess’ bloody form and sobbed, “Worse things.”

Gwendolyn rushed to Tess and held her by the shoulders, “Tess!”

“Is she alive, Gwen?” Mairaela asked, unable to see her breathing anymore.

“Tess!”

There was a skittering sound in the darkness, the sound of something scratching at the rocks. Whatever it was, it was large. Mairaela thought she could see beady eyes looking at her through the shadows.

“Let’s bring her back,” Mairaela urged Gwendolyn, “Quickly.” Gwendolyn picked Tess up and Mairaela escorted her up the stairs and back into the tunnel, watching as the eyes receded into the dark.

As Gwendolyn carried Tess through the tunnel and into the room that once held the ledger, Joyona met them with a frown on her face. “What happened?” She asked.

“Pava’s dead,” Mairaela responded with a whisper. Joyona just nodded her head. Mairaela sighed, wiped her brow and said, “There’s no going back now.” She patted Gwendolyn on the shoulder and said, “Stay here. I’m going to go get Scirocca.”