Note: story is excess of 1000 words but couldn't help myself. If it excludes me, that's okay. I just had a lot of fun with this one.
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Burn, burn them all
C.M Quinn
Ariadne, it’s…it’s the witches. They’ve breached the wall…and…and there’s more. A group was seen heading to your villa.
Andromache’s words pounded inside of my skull as I raced across the Garden of Tranquillity. Memories of Hector and I, the kiss stolen in the very same gardens. The sound of Apollonia’s shrieking laughter as she ran across the grass, tearing through the garden beds, as her twin sister, Hippolyta, ran after her. My daughters. My family.
Betrayal burned in my gut as I hurled myself through the archway at the end, down a flight of steps and out of the main palace. I kept searching for my magic, reaching for it, but it was smothered. The witches must’ve gotten to the centre of the palace. Shame burned inside of me but I shoved it away, running as fast as my legs might carry me. I ran by the stables but it was quiet, the doors thrown open and only the hoof prints pressed into the dirt remained. Someone had let the horses out. Who? One of our own kind, hoping to spare our loyal beasts? Or a witch, whom had some evil plan in mind?
They’ll burn for this. All of them will burn for this, I vowed viciously.
Whatever shred of love I had for the humans, whatever humanity remained within me, shrivelled up. I was not one of them, never had been really and I’d been fooling myself to think they might ever understand how much we do for them. Their small minds were never able to grasp the truth. I’d kill them all.
They’re just children, love. Errant children. Show compassion, entreated Hector in my mind.
I left the stables behind, continuing along the paved streets where the basic accommodation for the lower ranked Syrens. Well-sized villas with their own bathing chambers, several rooms, and a garden each. Every door was shut. No one was home. Everyone was at the temple where celebrations of my mother’s turning day had ended as a guard came in, spewing news of an attack. Everyone had laughed.
No one was laughing anymore.
I dragged in painful gulps of air, my lungs screaming for release. For me to stop. I didn’t, not when my family needed me, not when there were witches to die. My legs faltered. I stumbled, careened into a low wall. Catching myself, I pushed off again, digging my heels in, drawing on whatever scraps of energy I had left. I was the grand daughter of a Titan and gods be damned would I be defeated, be betrayed.
The road narrowed and the small villas fell away, opening onto a small orchard. My orchard. Trees once full of olives and fruit had shrivelled and curled in on themselves, turning black with rot. Black magic had soaked into the earth, killing them. I tasted in my mouth, the sour, festering taste.
As the road sloped upwards I spied my villa, sitting atop the hill.
The front gate was wide open.
No, Gods, no.
Panic choked a scream in my mouth as I sprinted to the gate…and stopped dead, frozen. Carved into the dirt was a message.
Traitor.
Anger burst in my chest, a white-hot fire that tore through my limbs, engulfing my soul. All I saw was red, a fury that wouldn’t be contained.
I hurried on to the villa doors, which were wide open. The villa was silent. I moved inside slowly, inhaling the stench of blood.
Werewolf blood.
Hector.
“Hector! Hector!”
I didn’t care if any witches appeared. Even without my magic I had my sword and my immortality. I kept shouting into the villa, my voice faltering into panicked pleas, begging for an answer. Tears must’ve been falling because my cheeks burned and when I touched them they were wet. I tasted salt on my lips and let the tears fall, embracing the grief – that oh so dangerous feeling for a Syren, letting the darkness nudge my mind.
“Hector! Hector!” I cried out, passing into the rear of the villa.
A gurgled moan resounded faintly. I rushed to the source, the stench of blood growing stronger, right out into the garden. There, I froze and felt whatever world I had left shatter like glass, bloodied shards at my feet.
Several feet away lay my daughters, their throats cut, like bloodied smiles. Blood soaked a dark pool around their pale, lifeless corpses. Finally, a scream tore from my throat as I staggered over to them, anger bleeding to grief, to darkness. Yet as I reached for Apollonia I caught sight of Hector just a few feet away, tied sitting to a tree, his shirt soaked in blood. His head was limp at his chest but as I neared closer, my sobs tearing through my body, his head lifted.
Weak, broken eyes met mine and for a moment something flared in them. Relief.
“Ari-“
I was at his side. “Hush, don’t speak. Rest easy I’m here now.”
“They said they’d take your magic, that whatever they did here you couldn’t fix,” he said hoarsely, slowly, as if each word was a battle.
“I don’t care. I’ll go to the Underworld if I have to, steal you back and take you far away. We can make our own paradise and our girls can grow up like we promised, with the love of both parents. How does that sound?”
He smiled weakly but it fell. It was too much effort. “That…sounds…nice…”
I set a trembling hand to his chest and called to my magic again, screaming in frustration as nothing came. Not one lick of magic. I shoved my hand on his chest again, then again and again, calling. When I finally looked up through my tears Hector’s open eyes met mine, lifeless.
Something inside me snapped.
Lightning cracked behind me, a flash of light. I didn’t have to turn to see whom it was. I just didn’t care.
“Child, I offered my aid before in smiting the witches and you said no….and what now? Do you accept?”
Zeus’s voice rumbled like thunder across the garden. I turned slowly, cold and dead inside, and rose before him.
“Yes.”
The God of the Heavens smiled at me and held out his hand, sparks of light leaping through his fingers. I grasped his hand without any hesitation and the world exploded into light.
The palace was silent. The screams had stopped but I still felt my sisters, wherever they were. Some must’ve escaped. Good. It meant whatever I did now, whatever happened next, my people lived and the witches ultimately failed. I moved through the palace, appeased by that, on my way to the the heart of the palace, the source of our magic.
I found it easily and on the other side of the door I heard voices, felt their magic too. Witches. A coldness settled in my heart. I stepped to the door and set my hand against it, calling on the magic of the gods. The door exploded inwards, wood splintered. Screams erupted within the room. I saw witches on the ground, strewn about, shards of wood impaling half. Others lay wounded, bleeding on the floor, crying out, howling in agony. 663Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQ9Y0DWJIUL
Yet as they saw me, saw the light crackling across my skin, they fell silent.
They had no more chance to speak as I snapped my fingers, snapping their necks instantly, until only one remained. Her. As I predicted, she was at the heart of the slaughter, and I smelt the blood of my family on her skin. To her credit she forced herself to stand, the blue glow of the well framing her body, her clothes splattered with the blood of my daughters, of the only man I’ve loved. She met my gaze, knew exactly what I was thinking but she wasn’t afraid. I smiled cruelly and approached; then with a wave of my hand, I forced her to her knees until I loomed above her, staring down.
“We are slaves no more,” she spat.
I tutted my hand. “No, now your sisters are dead…well, the ones here. Those whom fled to the mainland a few nights ago with my traitorous sister, Lucilla, I will deal with. Your rebellion has failed. I would’ve helped you but you just had to have patience. Funny how you called me the traitor.”
She lifted her head defiantly, shoving her nose into the air, eyes blazing. “It hasn’t. Your palace has fallen, your sisters are dead – or will be, soon. This island is ours.”
I laughed in her face and her defiance faltered. My confidence shattered her resolve. So, I knelt down, eye to eye and leant in close.
“Yes, but my kin are children of the water. They can survive in it and Poseidon will welcome them. Your people however, even the humans you claim to love and protect? Oh, my dear fool, they can’t swim.”
She frowned. “What?”
“Perhaps it is time the island of Atlantis sinks beneath the waves. So, my dear, all I can say is this; let them drown, let their bodies be consumed by the monsters that await them and let their souls rot in the deepest part of the Underworld.”
The blood drained from her face. “You’ll kill them all?”
I tilted my head to the side. “You did that, child. You did that thinking the gods would favour you but you’re wrong. That’s not even the best part. For your sisters whom escaped, guess what I have in store for them.”
She trembled. “What?”
“For their betrayal I curse them to be forever hunted, for their children and grandchildren, and all witches whom follow, to burn, to be slaughtered. No witch will ever know peace or safety, never be accepted. The humans you so dearly love will turn on them and set the fire to them. So, little witch, may your people burn.”
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