Part 33

Fury only carried one so far.

One more fell to my blade. I don’t even recall how I crossed the field, I only remember the red mist of Laena coating me as I leapt. The eyes of her murderer opened wide in shock. She had time for nothing else.

I sliced the weapon in two, taking both hands with one sweep. It hadn’t even fallen to the ground as I spun, letting the momentum carry me around. The next blow took her head off cleanly, the heavy body thumping to the ground. I felt more than heard Naryssa’s cry of pain, turning in time to see her fall, scarlet spray where her right arm should be. Then hammerblow after hammerblow fell on me, quick and numerous as a downpour. One blast, then another, and another. They threw me backward with their force, my body shuddering with each impact.

And I felt my skin cracking, shattering, spider webs spreading across it.

They were breaking me faster than I could heal.

Shots kept me pinned to the ground, the remaining warriors advancing on me. For all my strength, I couldn’t move. For all my fury, I couldn’t even grasp the hilt of my sword, mere inches from my fingers. For all my invulnerability, the chanting foe was breaking me apart. My words could not save me now. I could not speak them, and they would not be heard. They would be drowned out by the thunder, and by the sonorous chanting of false prayers.

Even empty words held power when you believed them enough.

My muscles went slack, no longer bothering to struggle. There was no point. No purpose. There was no victory here. She would die ingloriously, with none to witness her fall. Perhaps there would be tales. Perhaps her death would matter. There was nothing she could do about it now.

No? Faith dies so easily.

A voice she hadn’t heard in a long time. A voice that hadn’t needed to speak for months. She had been a conduit for Their will. One need not speak for their hands to obey them. But now They spoke again, because she needed to listen. Because she had lost the path.

You believe we chose poorly?

That a champion of ours could fall with such ease?

Pick yourself up, girl, our gifts are not so easily broken.

You are not so easily broken.

The name of your blade, do you wish to know what it is?

You have known all along.

Speak the name, a whisper to your lover, a call to she who dwells in the warp.

Our gifts are not done being given.

But you must be worthy.

The name, it has always been there, imprinted on your soul.

You can remember it if you have faith enough.

I tried to remember. I tried to believe, but the inside of me was hollow. What had come of my armies? What had become of the vision of a united Lachrys? None remained. Those who were loyal had died in droves. Their blood watered the earth, when they had gone out of their way to avoid shedding that of their foes. We had let them choose. We had let them ignore the Truth so long as they let their neighbors embrace it. Almost a year of my life had been spent gathering, uniting, swaying. And now it was all undone in a week.

What then was the point?

What was the point of me surviving? Even if I could fight back, it didn’t matter. I could not fight a world. I could not fight the hundreds of these warrior women who had descended on my army. I couldn’t fight the gathered armies of this world if the Amorok swayed them against me.

All that remained of my efforts was me.

Me. A bright, burning fire lit my soul. The Truth was not something that became greater with the more people who believed it. I was the Truth. I was the spark that could kindle a forest fire. I’d proven that once already. The Truth was not diminished if a single soul knew of it. It did not grow if all the galaxy chanted it aloud.

The Truth was simply the Truth.

I smiled. Though blood stained my lips, seeped between my teeth, I grinned fiercely. The Truth could not die, even if all those who knew it did. Even if I died the Truth remained. That was the lesson. It wasn’t to fight even in the face of defeat or death. It was to know that there was no defeat, not for the cause I fought for.

There was no end to Chaos, but so long as I breathed, I would bring an end to those who served falsehoods and lies.

So I smiled.

I breathed in.

Then I spoke the name of my blade.

And reality was torn apart.