Chapter Eight: Dark Angles

Lapis was enjoying the sunset from the little boardwalk going over the pond behind the castle. There was a thriving ecosystem of fish in here, some of which were fairly strange, most of which were not very good to eat. There was a slight nip in the breeze but for the most part she was just fine up here. Recalling how much Rita was bleeding when they brought her in caused a pang of hurt in her heart. The old wooden doors behind her squeaked as they were opened.

Lapis glanced over her shoulder to see Wonder walking out with a jacket over the purple dress she wore. “Hey, Lapis?”

Lapis put on the largest smile she could in order to mask the wounds she still had in her heart. “Yeah, Lucy? What’s up?”

Wonder took a spot next to her. “Earlier, when we brought Rita in. Saturn had been using her healing magic to heal Lamont’s leg, but Saturn started bleeding from her nose… I thought healing magic couldn’t hurt you?”

Lapis laughed. “You never did very good in magical theory did you?”

“Hey!”

“S’cool, I’ll explain it.” Lapis looked up toward the orange sky and felt the warmth of the sun flowing through her. “So we all have natural stores of aether energy, this is the energy we use to create magic. Our magic as starlings tend to be very specific. I can use transmutation animal magic, octopus specifically. You can use illusions and lightning.”

Wonder beamed. “And since Rita is a terran she can't do anything at all.”

“Wrong.” Lapis corrected with a little more strength then she had meant. “I mean, yes on the surface it looks as though Rita can’t use magic. Terrans have innate talents, or special abilities which usually draw from the same pool of aether energy. In Rita's case she can imbue the inventions she makes with her own energy to make truly fearsome weapons and gadgets.”

Wonder scratched her chin. “That's kinda lame, anyone who can make magic runes can do that. Heck even I made a… thing in school. It had lights on it. It worked I promise.”

“For about three seconds before exploding.” Lapis grinned.

Wonder crossed her arms over her chest and puffed out her cheeks. “It was dumb anyway. Good riddance.”

“Anyway, what I’m saying is that Rita can do something too and I just hope that one day she uses her special abilities to do a lot of good for the country rather than selfishly building inventions for herself.” Lapis returned her view to the sunset just barely peaking over the mountains.

“I can agree to that,” Wonder added.

Lapis’s grin became mischievous. “Buuuut I hope she makes some much more... private inventions for just the two of us some day.”

“And you ruined it. You see this,” Wonder gestured around her, “This was a moment, and you ruined it.”

The two of them shared a laugh before Lapis returned to staring over the pond with pain in her heart. She’d almost lost Rita today, again. How many times had Rita saved their lives now? And how many times had Lapis failed to keep her safe. They were guardian hearts, and Lapis was the guardian of loyalty, how could she let Rita almost die for them like that. She needed to get stronger, and to get her confidence back. If only Mini hadn’t left the team, then Lapis could have been just as brave as ever before.

Wonder’s tiny hand wrapped around Lapis’s and squeezed. “I failed…”

Lapis looked down at her. “No you didn’t.”

“Yes, I did. I got scared when I saw that, that monster. Rita was brave enough to fight it. I… lost hope that we could defeat it.”

Lapis looked down at her tiny friend, but with the way Wonder’s head was turned she couldn’t see Wonder’s face. “It’s okay. We all fail sometimes. It’s okay though. Failure is mandatory, it’s if we get back up and try again that really counts.”

Wonder shook her head. “I don’t know how much longer I can keep doing this. I didn’t want to be involved with anymore monster hunts. We lost Heath, and Mini, and… everyone. I don’t want to lose anyone else. Or worse yet… be the next one to be lost.”

That struck a personal cord with Lapis. She had spent a night or two wondering much the same about herself. How much loss could they really keep withstanding. Lapis might have been seventeen, but she’d already had enough of fighting. All their school years really did was teach them how to fight, but as one of the seven guardian hearts, she’d ended up doing a lot more real fighting a lot earlier then she should have. It was part of the reason they all got to graduate a couple years early in fact.

Still Lapis knew what she had to do no matter what. “I can’t tell you what to do, but I know my place is here, helping Rita with whatever she needs in the future. If I die keeping her safe, then at least I will know I can die happy. So long as I'm the bearer of Loyalty, I have vowed to stay by Rita's side.”

“You really love her don’t you?”

Lapis looked away from Wonder and grabbed her fishing pool. “You already know the answer to that.”

***

The great hall was quiet as ever as Rita used her left hand to eat a bowl of honey oats cereal. Saturn was back to taking care of the wounded, and Rita didn’t know where her friends were at the moment. She figured they’d find her if they needed her. For now she just wanted to get some food inside her gut.

Next to her was a left over newspaper she'd found on the floor. It was yesterday's date but she read it anyway. The front page article was about yet another aether stone mine closing down due to an accidental fire spreading. This was concerning to Rita's line of work especially but it also would affect the entire country if this trend kept up. Aether stones were becoming more expensive by the day and Rita was in dire need of replacing a few of the rarer types. She'd overheard someone once talking about how they might try to mine the aether wastes once again, but that was probably the worst idea Rita had heard in a long time. That place was not meant for life let alone humans.

The doors to the great hall opened up and much to her surprise Lamont came walking in. With each step he hobbled and nearly fell a couple of times. The stave he used was the only thing saving him from kissing the oak wood floor of the great hall. Despite his trouble he wore a determined smile as he joined Rita at one of the long tables.

“Good evening,” Lamont said with a practiced smile.

Rita stared at him in hushed silence for a moment before a flare of anger hit her. “You idiot! You can’t be walking around with your leg like that! I’m dragging you back to bed right now!”

“With your one good hand?” he asked with a raised eyebrow.

Rita growled. “I’ll go invent something to drag you back for me? How about a self aware crane?”

“And I’ll be very obstinate and make everyone’s life very difficult.”

“Then I’ll invent a brainwashing helmet to make you obedient.”

“You’d have to catch me first, and trust me, I’m a great runner, it only took me a half hour to get from the infirmary down the hall to here.”

An involuntary chuckle escaped Rita’s lips. At first she tried to quell the laugh but when Lamont flashed a cheesy grin at her she couldn’t hold it in and broke up into a fit of mad laughter. He joined in as well leaving the two of them giggling like a bunch of fools in the great hall where their laughter echoed all around them.

At length Lamont was able to recompose himself. “You know you’re at the wrong table right? you’re supposed to be at the little table at the end where the lord of the castle, aka me, is supposed to be sitting with the fellow residents.”

Rita shrugged. “Like I care, I just found somewhere that was close to the door.”

“Yes, where the peasants are supposed to sit.”

Rita grinned. “Then I guess I fit right in.”

Lamont looked down at his hands on the table. “I assume that Saturn was showing you where Nightmare was being kept.”

Rita nodded. “Yeah… why do we have her in here again?”

“Because she’s powerful, violent, and is spreading some kind of sickness that we still can’t heal.”

Rita shook her head and took another bite of food. Around a mouthful of food Rita said, “So what do we do with her, really?”

Lamont snickered. “Well first I suggest you swallow before speaking, secondly I suppose we wait until Queen Solaria arrives to check it out. I think she’ll be very interested in this.”

“Why would she care?”

“We have an ascended monster of folklore in our basement. Why wouldn’t she be interested?”

Rita had to concede that that was a sensible point. Still she had questions and not enough answers. Not to mention her defeat at Nightmare’s hands was something she couldn’t stand. “I need to get stronger.”

“First you should probably take care of that hand.”

Her hand, no her entire arm still ached from a dull throbbing pain. If Rita couldn’t defend her friends without use of her hand, then she wasn’t fit for the title of Leader of the Guardian Hearts. The red heart on the palm and back of her left hand was the sign and symbol of her conviction, of her will to stop the forces of darkness and keep people safe. Even if she hadn’t had the brightest of beginnings she was a hero now, and she needed to use that to keep her friends safe from harm.

“Rita,” Lamont said in a warning tone.

Rita shook herself out of it and flashed a grin. “Yeah?”

“You have that look.”

“What look?”

“The look you get whenever you made your mind up to do something crazy.”

“Crazy huh…” Rita said. An idea popped into her mind and she jumped up. “That gives me an idea!”

Lamont sunk his head onto the table. “Looks like I was right. Just be careful. No more flying machines.”

“Flying is boring, besides,” Rita was already running off towards the door as she spoke, “Careful is for cowards!”

Rita walked through the hall at a brisk pace and then through the entrance way. The sunset cast a deep shadow over the bailey, the workshop was only a little ways away. Along the way Rita encountered Fiona. She wore a familiar orange dress that was much more modest than Rita would have expected a woman with her figure would wear. The woman herself stood at nearly six feet tall. Rita watched in silence for a moment as Fiona continued watering the flowerbed. There was a practiced and still movement to each of Fiona's movements that told Rita she was very comfortable with the task, but also something else, Fiona's arms were exposed up to the shoulder revealing athletic muscles, the kind of which took a lot of practice and dedication to earn, yet they were very cat like, small and agile looking. Whatever this woman did to gain those muscles likely made her a bigger threat then she let others know, but considering how dangerous the world could be to beautiful women, Rita was actually pleased to see Fiona taking care of herself like that.

“Good evening, Fiona,” Rita greeted as she stopped next to her.

Fiona looked up at her with a pair of the brightest orange eyes one could imagine flecks of purple hid within her iris if Rita looked hard enough she could see them on most days. “Oh, Miss Rita, it is a good evening is it not?”

“I uh… yes, that’s what I just said. It is a good evening.”

A pink tint rushed to each of the woman’s cheeks. “Oh my, I mean o-of course it is. I-I didn’t mean to q-question you.”

Rita flashed a boyish grin. “It’s fine. I was just on my way to the workshop. I just wanted to thank you for all the work you’ve done on the castle lately. I know that Wonder’s really happy about you being here.”

“O-oh t-thank you v-very much.”

Rita rolled her eyes. “I’m the one thanking you. Not the other way around.”

“I’m sorry. I mean… your welcome?”

Rita nodded in approval. “That’s better. You’re not a slave, you’re a valued worker and member of the castle. For this, I’m going to insist that Lamont gives you another raise.”

“R-r-really?”

Rita started walking off, hands behind the back of her head. “Sure thing. As soon as I’m done creating hell on illuminated metal.”

Rita glanced back to see the confused look on Fiona’s face. Of course now the real work could begin. But what was Rita going to make. She was all out of sun stones, so now she’d either have to learn how to fight better, even with her arm in its current shape, or get very creative.

Luckily Rita had an idea on how to do both of those things.

***

The sun was only just now disappearing from the night sky and this had left Wonder standing out on top of one of the wall towers looking out over the cliff side leading into the dense forest below. Once upon a time there hadn’t been much of a forest up here, and what did try to grow was mostly cut down to give line of sight to the defenders. Of course now the castle was manned by a skeleton crew as it no longer held the same purpose or function that it once had.

In fact there were so few servants that Wonder was up here on top of the castle walls for a reason. With a broom in hand she went about taking care of the task that was uniquely hers and had been for a long time now. She continued her work sweeping the walkway clear of dust and leaves or anything else left up here. She'd already found one of Rita's empty energy drinks lying about.

Wonder was so intimately familiar with the walls in fact that she was familiar with each one of the chips, and cracks along the walls. She only stopped long enough to look at her side and see her little sketch book lying next to the waste bin she was using. A series of pencils lay next to it. If she was lucky she'd be able to do some more sketching of the castle, it's walls, or of the surrounding area before complete dark.

The stars were starting to shine beautifully up in the sky. The lines of silver light danced like rivers floating in the sky above them. The moon shone, brilliantly with its many cracks covering the surface with chunks of it floating around where a massive hole along its side. It was once said that a terrible war had happened on the moon though that was in the time of ancients.

Something moved in the darkness of the forest below. A dark shadow ran across a few trees staying just out of sight. Wonder had already pulled out her wand and was preparing a lightning spell, though her hand was shaking and her heart galloping from the fear of the unknown danger that lurked below. Part of her wanted to think it was merely an animal, but the shadow had seemed oddly shaped, unlike any animal she was familiar with.

Seconds ticked by slowly. Several of the castle’s lights on the wall flickered on as the internal light sensors noticed the sun had died down. Yet right where Wonder stood the light above her flickered and burst. It was enough to make Wonder jump back and lose the concentration she had on her spell.

At that same time the shadow raced out of the woods. A pair of inky black wings spread out and the shadow took flight up along the side of the cliff hugging close to the wall before going over the top and landing ten feet in front of Wonder. The thing was half shadows, and half pale flesh. It was a naked woman who wore the shadows like a scantily clad dress. She licked a pair of black lips and looked over at Wonder with a fanged smile. Her leathery wings spread imposingly wide making her seem like a giant compared to Wonder.

The woman’s voice came out as smooth as silk, yet with a hint of venom that Wonder could just barely make out. “Don’t you look just delectable, sweetie.”

Despite Wonder’s wandering eyes, she took a step back and pointed her wand at the woman. “W-what are you doing here?”

“Just freeing my mistress,” The woman took slow steady steps toward Wonder.

Wonder matched her movement by walking backwards steadily. “What are you talking about?”

“You don’t need to know, you just need to stay out of our way. I, Nightshade, will more than be willing to ignore such a,” She paused to bite her lower lip with a fanged tooth, just enough to draw a line of crimson from it, “-succulent youth.”

From behind Nightshade, in a poof of smoke and shadow came two more half shadow creatures. One was at least eight feet tall, and covered in as much muscle as he was scars along with bits of bark covering his arms and dreadlocks made out of plant vines. The other was a slender, long limbed creature with long flowing hair of the purest black covering its face, the body was knobby and bent at strange angles.

Nightshade looked back at them. “And these are my two associates, Noct, and Mind Sliver. Now that we’ve introduced ourselves, why don't we get more familiar with each other?”