Chapter 201: Black & White

She’ll be alright. She’ll win.

Mordwell was so close. Thirty-four years of fear and self-loathing caused by that man. A childhood marred and a first life ruined.

Seyari still burned for revenge. She was furious; hot wind whipped around her like a sideways twister, throwing ash aside as she barreled into the cavern barely big enough to fly in.

Unlike that night all those years ago. Unlike that night just one year ago where she’d nearly struck down Zarenna’s sister. Unlike her life right up until her marriage vows, the anger was second in Seyari’s mind.

First in her mind was her family. Coming home safe, taking on the next challenge together, and maybe even turning a castle into a cottage.

Mordwell had to die. Seyari wanted to be the one to kill him. But if the cave collapsed and did her job for her? She’d turn around, she’d leave, and she’d live.

Keeping her thoughts focused on the now might just have saved her. The attack came as the cave widened into a chamber, a spear of white-hot fire with an uncomfortably familiar shape to it blazing just past Seyari’s face. The flash lit up the cavern, bringing a moment of color to the black-and-gray rocks.

She wheeled in the air, wings flaring and magic blazing. Before she could find her target amongst the stalactites, she was forced to bank hard, narrowly dodging another figure that’d closed the distance.

Greater demons, both of them. Didn’t take aura sight to sense that. Maintaining her spin, she drew her blade, scoring a light hit on the leg of the demon that had passed her.

Seyari couldn’t stay still, dodging another two attacks—lightning and wind—from the ground. Below, the chamber was open, with a rolling, discontinuous floor and small streams that steamed with the mountain’s eruptive heat.

Down there, she’d be open. Up near the top of the chamber, with false rises, stalactites, and sudden dead-ends, it’d be almost impossible to navigate and fight.

Almost.

Seyari tucked her wings, kicked up the wind around her into a maelstrom, and took off after the source of the first attack. Lorelei. You fooled my Renna, but you won’t fool me.

Her magic was fought from below, but she overwhelmed it with surprising ease. Still, it was enough to expose her, and she had to duck behind a stalactite to dodge another bolt. The demon that’d tried to slam into her midair had turned around, a clumsy bronze-gold blur moving between cover. Jagged wings, coin-like scales, and a perpetual sneer.

An avarice demon, almost certainly. And a quick glance told Seyari that the two attackers on the ground, hiding in the uneven terrain, were envy demons. Gray, lithe, and almost human.

Twist, turn, and she barreled forward toward where Lorelei’s attack had come from. Renna said she was wingless, so… there!

Seyari dove after the flash of orange. A surge of wind magic shoved against hers, and she was pushed off course just enough for the other winged demon to crash into her.

They were armed, and the blade cut deep across her abdomen. One hand on her own sword, and the other reflexively holding guts in, she pulled on all the wind and heat she could. Like a geyser, steam burst up from below, scalding both Seyari and her assailant.

They were clumsy in the air, and with a swing to cripple one wing, Seyari kicked them off and flared her wings at the ground rushing up to meet her. The avarice demon wasn’t so lucky, bouncing with a crunch before tumbling into a boiling stream.

Down for now, but not out.

Seyari pulled up, just in time to catch a lightning bolt to the back. Muscles burned and spasmed, wings locked, and she couldn’t dodge an incoming burst of fire. The caster’s vaguely familiar face appeared from behind a rock, four eyes blazing with fury.

If Zarenna’s flame was warm comfort, this fire was anguish and desperation.

It scorched hair and feathers, blistered skin, and burned her insides that her magic had only just started to heal. Seyari sailed past Lorelei and crashed into a rise of folded rock. One wing snapped, and she tumbled head over heels.

The fire tried to cling onto Sey, and she felt a familiar, awful fury building, but she pushed it down. The flames went out, burning only skin deep, and her holy magic lit up around her like daylight.

Shadows rushed toward her, and Seyari gasped for air, then hissed it back out as she used her bad wing to kip up into a crouch. The shadow resolved into a gray-skinned demon, thin limbs reaching forward with claws of wind.

Seyari’s abdomen finished pulling shut just as they met. Her wind barreled into theirs, stopping the charge. She feinted low, then swung high, and the demon’s arm flew off, tumbling between ridges. She kicked the envy demon and they stumbled before falling onto the ground and writhing in silent agony. Where their stump limb ended, holy magic burned, charring flesh and bone to ash.

Seyari longed to leap airborne again, but she’d need time—and magic—to heal. She took a defensive stance and shouted, “Lorelei! I know it’s you!”

Her shout echoed around the chamber. She watched the writhing demon, the crevasse the avarice demon had fallen into, and the shadows where the lightning user lurked. From where Seyari had seen her, the demon that Lorelei had become emerged.

Her face was similar enough to be a cousin, or maybe even a sister, but that was where the similarities ended. Orange skin, long limbs, digitigrade legs, and four eyes—two blue and two red—marked her as inhuman. Zarenna would approve of the four arms.

She wouldn’t approve of the grimace Lorelei’s face was set in. Her red eyes burned, but the others…

“Lorelei is dead,” the demon said in a voice that was more hurt than angry.

“Is she now?” Seyari pushed, waiting for her wing bone to set and watching the shadows carefully.

They circled each other, waiting. Seyari had to time it right—too long and she’d be fighting more than two.

“Deliverance,” the demon Lorelei said softly. “That is what I am.”

“How pretentious.” Just a little longer! Get past them and stop Mordwell!

Deliverance bristled. “Are you going to try to ‘save’ me too?”

Seyari wanted to smirk, but what came out was a sad half-smile. “No.”

She lunged forward. One hand threw a holy lance at the other envy demon, and the other held her blade forward. Lorelei, Deliverance, whatever she was calling herself, expected the feint and moved to block an altered trajectory. Sey had always fought with feints like that when they’d worked together what felt like a lifetime ago.

Half formal and half street-taught. Never willing to take that much of a risk, to be so openly earnest.

Seyari locked her arm and drove the blade home. No feint, no hidden technique. Just a telegraphed intent. Deliverance watched the blade pierce through her. Watched the holy magic burning her away silently, with an expression that made Seyari’s heart ache.

She pulled the blade free early. Not because she couldn’t do it, but because the holy lance had missed. Not only that, but the holy magic burning the other one had stopped at the wrist, and they were back up.

When she locked eyes, a headache like a sledgehammer slammed into her. Seyari stumbled, but she caught herself, stepping over a kneeling, dying Lorelei and bringing her weapon and magic to bear.

Behind her, she heard a rush of wings from the trench, so she sailed forward. No wind magic, just a thrust of her wings. The wind user failed to knock her away, and she willingly took the lightning to drive her sword into the other envy demon.

Unreadable, violet and black eyes looked at her, and she covered them with her fist. Her fist glowing with holy light. The nose crunched, the skull cracked, and Seyari couldn’t quite get out of the way of the returned avarice demon.

The blade took her through the thigh, and they threw their full weight to keep her from taking off.

“Now!” came a shout in Ordian.

The remaining envy demon moved with the wind, drawing a slim sword and aiming for Seyari’s heart. With her own wing magic, she twisted both her and the avarice demon, barely, taking the sword to the lung.

And tumbling over the edge toward the boiling stream.

With a leg, she tripped up the envy demon, and with a singed wing she pulled them in too. She didn’t have enough of Renna’s magic to take the same boiling baths her wife was fond of, but she was resistant at least.

Not that it mattered much.

The water was superheated, and it burned every single centimeter of Seyari’s body. She thrashed along with them, searching for a handhold, a foothold, anything to keep from sinking. Wide as she was tall, this was no stream, but a river, deep and swift and boiling.

Seyari’s sharp nails found rock, and she clung on, hot lungs feeling about to burst. The punctured one burned and she could feel it filling with water as her overworked magic tried to keep her alive.

She latched her other hand on, and tried to pull up. Except the demons were latched onto her, dead weight she didn’t have the strength to lift. Using her flagging magic, she charred their hands, but by the time they’d let go, her vision was turning black.

Not here!

Seyari put one hand in front of the other, even as she felt her skin peeling away, her eyes boiling in her head.

And then the pain stopped.

Like a lever had been pulled, and a door closed, the water didn’t burn.

For a moment, Seyari wondered if she was dying. And then a wave of raw power slammed into her so hard she let go of the rock she’d been clinging to.

The feeling was almost like her vow with Renna. Except every emotion had been inverted. Seyari gagged and felt her magic pushing back against the tide of demonic strength.

She flailed and found the rock again. Looked up with regenerating eyes and saw the surface a stone’s throw away.

Gritting her teeth, she felt them warping back and forth between fangs as her very bones seemed desperate to burst from her body. The worst part was that none of it hurt. Not compared to boiling alive.

Seyari wasn’t a demon. Wouldn’t become one. Renna needed her Angel of Wrath and that was what she’d stay. But she didn’t reject the power either—not all of it.

Seyari would keep what strength she could make her own, and the rest? She didn’t need it. Not if it meant losing herself. I’m not alone.

Hand, self, hand, self. Seyari pulled herself up until her hand breached the water. The cave was cold, dreadfully so. But Seyari had unfinished business with Mordwell. Even if this power was from Renna’s victory outside, the portal was still open and Mordwell needed to be stopped.

Dripping and suddenly cold, Seyari forced herself up onto the rock. Forced herself to stand. Her sword was gone—lost somewhere at the bottom of the boiling river. When Sey looked down at her hand, her nails—no, claws—looked a good bit sharper. The dark cave was in clearer focus, though still in shades of gray.

Her wings were healed; everything was healed. But her mana was still low. Deliverance had pulled herself to a nearby rise in the rolling floor, and leaned against it. Her torso was a mass of charred, blackened flesh, and if it weren’t for aura sight, Seyari wouldn’t have believed her to be alive.

But she was, and… well it wouldn’t make sense to waste time finishing off someone who wouldn’t be a threat. Mordwell was the top priority.

Seyari took off with a running leap, and right into a wall of shadow. In an instant, she went from warm to freezing cold. The aura that surrounded her was something she’d heard about from Renna.

Envy.

She whirled around toward the exit, and threw out a tunnel of wind. The shadows didn’t move. They clung to her sight like a damp mold. Even her holy magic barely beat them back.

The owner’s aura didn’t make a move, and Seyari wasn’t going to give them an easy chance. Mordwell would have to wait.

“I expected more of a fight.”

Seyari didn’t respond to the voice that flowed like rotten honey.

“You don’t deserve her.”

Sey’s jaw tightened, and she reached for her sword that wasn’t there.

“You’re an impossibility. You and that demon you pretend is your daughter.”

Seyari closed her eyes. She could still feel the wind through the shadows. Feel the ebb and flow of heat in the cave that moved with steam from below. Her holy magic pulled from a depleted pool that was larger in its current state than what she’d ever had before.

“Do you really think you’re superior?”

The jibe hid an attack. Wreathing herself in holy magic, she deflected the blow with an arm. It sent her tumbling anyway, back-first into a wall that shouldn’t have been there. This time when she focused on the wind, she felt it jumping around impossibly.

Like it was moving around impossibly fast. Or like she was.

Seyari blocked another strike, then another, all with a simple rhythm.

They’re toying with me.

Her blood ran cold. The moment Envy wanted to kill her, she’d be dead. But they hadn’t stepped in earlier. Hadn’t gone out to stop Renna. Then why would they care about preventing Seyari from killing Mordwell?

No, there had to be some other reason.

Wait, what if…

The shadows parted in an instant. Seyari saw Zarenna at the mouth of the chamber, hundreds of meters away. She opened her mouth to shout a warning, and she barely saw the dark blade swinging for her neck.

***

Deliverance felt her insides knitting slowly back together. Master had given her this power, and now she couldn’t even die properly. She’d failed, but… she didn’t mind failing this.

Some long dead echoes of another self railed against what she was doing, against her master. She ran a finger along the cold of her collar, and it tingled with her contract’s magic. The familiarity didn’t bring her any comfort.

Why do I want comfort?

Deliverance looked up into the shadows swirling in the cave above. They weren’t meant for her; Envy was playing with their enemy.

And Deliverance hated that.

She pulled herself up to her feet, entire body burning in protest. Her mana was almost depleted, and the strike she’d walked into earlier had nearly killed her. Foolish, she’d definitely do something like that just to prove I wasn’t as good as her.

Deliverance found herself smiling, and her eyes all felt wet.

Below her chin, the metal binding collar burned. Damn, I’ve really messed up this time, huh?

She looked up in time to see the shadows clearing. To see Envy forming out of them behind Seyari, a wicked blade of shadow in one hand.

Her heart burned, and Deliverance drew on her magic for one last shot.