Quest for the Dragon Soul Pt. 04

Cyphelia Desjaines blinked her eyes repeatedly as Thierann's word sank in but it was too late - every opening was blocked by a thick sheath of ice that reflected the crimson glow emanating from the Blade Bride's womb.

Thierann pushed Cyphelia into the arms of a guard and when his eyes fell upon the pink marble table they had been seated behind, it crumbled to dust and began to flow around him just as Odeena the Crone lept from her perch in the highest pulpit and landed a few paces from the glowing form of Bailla'Tayne Jeva.

The wizard willed the flowing cloud of marble dust to swarm around the Blade Bride and form a wall to isolate her from Odeena the Crone - he did not like the old witch, but he knew that her magic, weakened from exposure to the Arcane Ailment, was no match for the raw power the Blade Bride currently possessed. Even his might, untouched by the Ailment, was a fraction of Bailla'Tayne Jeva's.

It would have to be enough.

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General Dagleon Talveiss watched, just as the Oracle of Thull'Achar had predicted. He watched as three forces of magic were about the clash: Bailla'Tayne Jeva glowed, bathed in scarlet glory from her gut; Odeena the Crone, unleashing fire and lightning against the Blade Bride; lord Thierann of Gul'Vadesh, a cloud of dust swirling around his head while part of it solidified between Odeena and the Blade Bride.

Dagleon looked over at Ziel-Tan - she was corralling some audience members to a safe place away from the mystic confrontation but there were no safe places. The general looked up at the ceiling and saw long icy fang protrude towards the floor. If they fell, they would impale any unlucky enough to be beneath them. He also saw fights erupt between the guards of the Heligopol and the Qoazti companions - the confrontation between the mages was acting as a catalyst for the mounting tension infecting all those who had taken refuge in the claustrophobic confines beneath Melit'Zay.

The general placed his hand upon the hilt of his arming sword - Eldrath'Zhil seemed to sing for its freedom when he gazed over to where the Oracle struggled with a guard who dragged her away from the conflict. Her haunting gaze trapped his and he understood - after today, the Seeded Council would no longer be.

Dagleon Talveiss drew Eldrath'Zhil and the blade sang.

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Bailla'Tayne Jeva was in bliss - the expanse of magic that coursed through her core had expanded her senses and she could hear the specks of dust bouncing off one another as a wall formed around her. She could feel Thierann's will upon the leylines and admired the precision he exhibited. It reminded her of how Khaln would practice his sword drills after they made love in the morning.

The Blade Bride also felt the resentment and the anger that fueled Odeena the Crone's magic - but she could also see the frayed tatters of the old witch's once magnificent power. It was a simple act to impose her will upon theirs and make their constructs unravel.

Thierann gasped as he fell backwards when the backlash from the Blade Bride tore through his defenses. But even as tendrils of dream weaving magic sought to enter his mind and capture his thoughts, he created a maze of philosophical reasoning that thwarted the insistancy of Bailla'Tayne Jeva's dream weaving magic. He extended the maze to envelop Odeena and the other mages that were members of the Seeded Council - but, as this extension made his will cross the Blade Bride's, he felt that there was more than her will at play. The newly formed child she carried guided her application of will upon magic. That fact frightened the wizard more than he imagined.

Bailla'Tayne Jeva's smile and pleasure soured as a sliver of darkness appeared to suck the spark from the leylines of magic and spoil the constructs all the mages had weaved - even the tendrils of dream weaving crumbled as the red glow from the Blade Bride's stomach faltered.

General Dagleon Talveiss stood in front of Bailla'Tayne Jeva, his sword drawn and the point of the mat finished blade aimed at her heart.

"Please stop, Lady Bailla'Tayne," the general asked, his quiet, raspy voice somehow echoing though the chamber. The ice that had formed on the ceiling and down the walls was melting, showering everyone in the chamber with a dousing cold shower. The Blade Bride called upon the leylines that flowed through her to lash out at the general but his sword negated her will. The effect spread to every mage in the room.

"This is Eldrath'Zhil - the Spellbreaker," Dagleon added. "For the sake of every one here, end this."

Bailla'Tayne Jeva looked around and saw people quivering in fear while others huddled away from the skirmishes that had broken out. She returned her gaze to the general who had just threatened her a mere day ago.

"I bear you no ill will, lady Bailla'Tayne, but you are threatening the lives of everyone here - I will kill you to protect them."

Thierann was behind the general and in awe of the named sword he had always thought was only a myth. "Bailla'Tayne Jeva, we need you. Khaln needs you."

The Blade Bride considered striking at the general with her skill, but his demeanor suggested he expected that. And she was certain of it when she felt the tip of an arrow touch the base of her neck - Ziel-Tan of the Qoazti companion was supporting the general. Odeena the Crone stood off to one side and shivered as they were all rained upon by the melting ice sheath the Blade Bride had conjured.

"Can you say his name?" Bailla'Tayne Jeva asked Dagleon Talveiss.

"Khaln Dharrec," Dagleon said.

"Thank you," the Blade Bride said before she collapsed. General Dagleon Talveiss dropped his named sword and caught Bailla'Tayne Jeva before she crashed to the ground.

A moan rose in the chamber just as the general hailed two guards and ordered them to take the Blade bride back to her chambers. The general then ran over to the source of the pained moan.

Lord Thierann of Gul'Vadesh was on his knees and he cradled the head of the oracle Cyphelia Desjaines. Dagleon Talveiss gasped while Ziel-Tan stifled a cry - the oracle's robes were bloodied and torn from where a dagger had been plunged multiple times in her chest and stomach. The prime archer of the Qoazti companion Maca-Jal turned away while Thierann caressed her hair and kissed her forehead while rocking her body.

"Her eyes," Lord Thierann whispered as he touched the skin around Cyphelia's empty, bloodied eye sockets.

VII

The crew of the stolen vessel transferred their captives and cargo onto the immense barge that served as the home-on-the-sea for the Dread Lord of Ax'Herith - once the boat was unloaded, its captive crew were released from their stupor in time to witness their boat be set aflame. The Matron Sonorous kept a shackled and groggy Khaln by her side as they watched the vessel burn and heard the screams of the sailors as they struggled.

"Does it concern you that your fellow humans suffer and perish at sea?" the Matron Sonorous asked as she gestured at the rapidly sinking ship.

"No," Khaln muttered. "People mean very little to me, right now."

"Good."

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The preparations for the nuptials took place in low slung, oval shaped structure that was located near the pyramidal tower that occupied the center of the fog enveloped barge. The ceremony was set to happen when the twin moons were at their highest point in the night sky.

The Dread Lord of Ax'Herith took position in the center of the floor and the Matron Sonorous stood behind him while the Matrons Chameleonedae and Tenebrae took up places respectively to his right and left. Khaln had been attached to the ceiling, stiff metal rings held his arms and legs spread eagle while a larger flexible corset of leather roped through loops supported his stomach.

Spheres glowed in strategic areas across the chamber, casting eerie lite on the four immobile figures. Strange scraping sounds came from the flickering shadows and Khaln could hear the patter of feet crawling across the ceiling, just beyond his vision. His thoughts were strangely clear, the way they had been a few days before when he had killed two sailors who manhandled him.

"Matrons of Skaelor, Dread Lords of Skaelor," the Matron Sonorous began to recite. "For each one, there is one. We are the body of the Call - but our voice is incomplete."

The exposed brain of the Dread Lord quivered, spraying blood into the air as two Scything Souls carried a body wrapped in strips of linen that had been dipped in horribly pungent ointments. The smell reached up to Khaln's nostrils and he recoiled at the stench.

"We present the Dread Lord of Ax'Herith with a new bride - a new Matron to be born."

Upon those final words, the Matrons began to hum - Khaln felt the sound like a blow to the gut as the humming seemed to reverberate and be amplified by the strange properties of the oval chamber. He also felt the sonic energies focus on where he hung and he struggled but his binding held firm.

Beneath him, the Scything Souls began to unravel the eldritch fabric that made up their bodies and they recast themselves as a table upon which rested the enwrapped body of the Matron and bride to be. The Dread Lord of Ax'Herith moved forward, the leathery strands of nerve fibers that contained his skeleton heaved and flexed in an awkward imitation of a walk. Once the Dread lord place his unblinking eyes upon the helpless woman, his brain quivered and sprayed her splayed form with its pungent blood. Each drop that fell onto the strips of linen that covered her served as a root for the wriggling appendages that spouted. The trapped woman moaned audibly as the tendrils drilled into her flesh, staining the linen and the table she laid on with rivulets of blood. She struggled against the fabric but she was immobilized as the growing tendrils wrapped around her like tentacles.

Khaln recoiled as the tendrils broke through the sides of the linen that bound the woman and espoused her slim, busty form. He felt a pang of disgust at himself when he felt his cock manifest his budding arousal at her plight - he remembered that he was told it was Tayne that was trapped there. Bailla'Tayne Jeva had betrayed him and was about the suffer the fate he had wished upon her, but the sigh of her helpless at the mercy of the Dread Lord of Ax'Herith was a fate even he could not fathom upon another.

The Dread Lord reached out with his skeletal fingers and ran them across his captive's helpless body, lingering over her breasts and hips and buttocks. The leathery strips of dried nerve fibers that held his body together heaved and he reached out and gripped the prisoner's thighs and he pulled them apart.

Khaln growled when he saw an appendage appear from between the Dread Lord's thighs and quiver and spray blood, much like his hideous, exposed brain. The Dread Lord stepped forward and his dripping cock pressed against the tendrils that had consumed the linen bandages that had originally surrounded her. A ripping sound arose in the oval chamber and the Dread Lord of Ax'Herith thrusted into the frail looking body of the woman in bondage - she let out a muffled scream as the bulge of the Dread Lord's appendage made her stomach bloat like a ripening corpse.

Khaln wanted to look away but the compulsion to witness the destruction of the woman who betrayed him was greater even though he recoiled in disgust as her screams managed to overpower the drone of the chanting matrons.

The Dread Lord of Ax'Herith held his captive by the hips as he pounded her with ferocity - his bloodied member stretched her stomach beyond the point of human resistance but the tendrils that bound her also kept her form from being split in two. Her muffled screams had been replaced by cries of ecstasy as the captive embraced whatever transformation was happening to her.

It was then that Khaln noticed that the woman's form was curvaceous whereas Tayne was slender and athletic. The voice that climbed to his ears was broken and strained while Tayne's was mellifluous and satiny - he concentrated on her movements as she had stopped being an unwilling participant in this "marriage" and was now participating wholeheartedly in the transgression.

The Dread Lord tried to pull away from the wanton hunger of his new bride, but the tendrils rooted in droplets of his own blood sprouted from her form and entangled with the fibers that constituted his body - the new Matron stood from the table, the dark tendrils had fallen from her chest and her ample breasts and flat belly were exposed, and threw herself at the Dread Lord of Ax'Herith. They landed on the hard floor of the marriage chamber and the Matron pinned the Dread Lord to the ground and found his willing cock and impaled herself on it.

Khaln watched as the Matron embraced the fiend and rode its inhuman sex with a mad abandon while it stretched and twisted her - he understood that the woman being perverted was not Tayne, but Onia. He remembered her savagery while in the clutches of the Daughters of the Vanguard Draconis; he remembered that he had fucked her in her ass; he remembered that she was the one who dragged him away to be delivered to some unknown fate.

But Khaln also saw the machinations of the Matron Sonorous: he was to be her tool of vengeance, manipulated through his own thirst to see the woman who had betrayed him suffer. He was given a potion to provide him the vitality necessary to strike at the Dread Lord of Ax'Herith. He cast a glance at his hands and saw the familiar pools of light flash beneath his skin while the erratic web of his capillaries throbbed with a crimson glow. The last time his skin had glowed this way, he had been filled with rage, but now all he felt was sorrow.

Beneath him, the new Matron had flipped onto her back and the Dread Lord of Ax'Herith had taken a position between her thighs and they fucked - his bones clanged together as he thrust into her and she wrapped her legs around his skinny waist. The dark tendrils that had enveloped her had fallen away and her new form was exposed: her skin had the scaly countenance of a snake's and it shimmered as it captured the light from the various flickering orbs of light. Her head was bald but the tattoos she had worn proudly as Onia flowed and morphed as though floating on a viscous liquid. She hissed and howled as she embraced the inhuman cock that drove into her.

The humming of the watching Matrons had continued to strike Khaln with hurricane like forces as they centered onto where he was bound to the ceiling - he had also noticed a loosening of the loops that held his wrists and ankles. Khaln began to pant and contort his spine, applying pressure to the weakened tethers until they snapped, sending him plummeting to the floor. The Scything Souls that had supported the Dread Lord and the new found Matron shoved them aside just as Khaln struck the floor with a muffled groan. Red light rippled across his skin as he scrambled to his feet just in time to sidestep a thrust from one of the Scything Souls. As another thrust targeted his neck, Khaln used the metal ring looped around his left wrist to knock the blade aside but when he lunged for where the heart animating the Scything Soul should be, the leather bodice he wore tightened, sabotaging his technique.

The second Scything Soul had maneuvered behind Khaln and it wrapped a ribbon like limb around his neck and yanked the warrior backwards - Khaln used the rigidity of the leather bodice to his advantage by adding to the momentum generated by the Scything Soul by kicking off the floor as the creature yanked him. His body shot towards the Scything Soul like a spear and its grip faltered - Khaln twisted his shoulders and the Soul's limb unraveled like a scarf. But Khaln held on to the limb, immobilizing the blade that adorned its tip by bracing it against his body. As the Scything Soul struggled, its trapped blade cut at the leather bodice that hindered Khaln's movements and the restraint finally flew off as they wrestled. Now fully mobile, Khaln crouched while holding the base of the ethereal fabric that bound the Scything Soul's blade and he threw himself at the core of the creature - it tried to beat him off, cutting superficial wounds into his back and sides but Khaln turned the Scything Soul's own blade against it and stabbed at its dark core, piercing the human heart that powered it and spilling the black ichor that was its blood.

Khaln tossed aside the deflated corpse of the Scything Soul and readied to face the other when a shimmering movement caught his attention - he barely had time to roll with the blow as the new found Matron connected with his jaw while landing a powerful heel kick to his face. Khaln was thrown to the ground but as he continued to roll he regained his footing. Khaln snarled and tore at the tattered robes, exposing his glowing skin and bleeding cuts - the various scars on his torso and shoulders and back interrupting the pulses of light.

"Impressive, second-son," a thunderous voice resounded.

Khaln looked beyond the Matron and saw that the Dread Lord of Ax'Herith stood to his full height.

"You have brought me a fine bride," the Dread Lord said, his brain bubbling with each syllable. "She is now the Matron Inludidae - the scorn of The Call of Skaelor."

"So?" Khaln asked, shaking his head. "One way or another - she's just another future corpse."

"I've had a revelation: This isn't about the Call or humans, or even dragons. It's about the Void and it's pact with the Gods - and I'm a contract."

The Dread Lord of Ax'Herith bristled at the words. "This world is ours," the Dread Lord hissed, spraying blood into the air. "You will remake it so."

The Dread Lord and the young warrior named Khaln circled each other as the four Matrons stared on - the Matron Sonorous made a fist as she felt her vengeance was soon to bare fruit; the Matron Tenebrae pondered Khaln's words, wondering if she was just a pawn; the Matron Chameleonedae was silent, remembering her time as Asteytis, relishing the worship she'd received; the Matron Inludidae was torn between the desire to fuck to young warrior and to destroy him.

The Dread Lord of Ax'Herith growled and a ball of energy appeared between the halves of his hideous brain and a bolt of lightning streaked towards Khaln. The warrior threw himself to his side and the bolt of energy struck the side of the chamber, blowing out the wall, allowing streams of mist and moonlight to seep into the chamber. Khaln rolled to his side, but before he could regain his footing, the Dread Lord of Ax'Herith moved with preternatural speed and fell upon Khaln. The Dread Lord wrapped his bony hand and leathery tendrils around Khaln's glowing body, lifted the warrior off the ground and smashed him against the chamber's wall. Khaln grunted but he reached out for the Dread Lord's face but the limb was inhumanly long - but as the Dread Lord tried to toss Khaln across the chamber, the warrior wrapped his thickly muscled legs around the Dread Lord's arm and he arched his back while stretching his body to its full length. His movements, added to the Dread Lord's momentum caused the creature to stumble forward - Khaln felt his skin go cold where it encountered the exposed bones of the Dread Lord's skeleton, but as the Lord stumbled, the warrior unwrapped his legs from around his arm and he threw them backwards. Khaln fought with the tangle of leathery tendrils that tried to wrap around him like tentacles and he managed to drag the Dread Lord of Ax'Herith to the floor.

Khaln landed on the Dread Lord, ignoring the pain that wracked his limbs where his skin touched the web of exposed nerves that held the creature together. The Dread Lord swatted and yanked at Khaln by the warrior had found strength and had neutralized the Dread Lord's reach advantage. Khaln managed to mount the Dread Lord's chest and started to pummel its sternum - each impact made Khaln's fists erupt with pulses of red light that rippled across his body. The Dread Lord of Ax'Herith unleashed another bolt of blue lightning from his obscenely bulging brain - Khaln caught the bolt in the face but held onto the Dread Lord's ribs even as he screamed in pain as flesh was peeled from his jaw. The bolt of lightning stopped suddenly as Khaln pulled the Dread Lord's ribs apart.