Song of the Mirror Maker, Chapter Twelve
When Rose came to, she was staring at the Hoard-filled sky overhead. She was being jostled roughly, and quickly realized she was being carried and spoken to urgently as the gargoyle creatures swept by.
“Please Rose!” Theta’s voice cried desperately. “Wake up! Come back to me!”
"Doctor!"
She stared up at the Overlord’s face and smiled weakly as he brought them inside the protective barrier of the keep and set her down in front of him. He quickly examined her eyes and gave a thankful sigh of relief before clasping her to him in a suffocating embrace.
“Rose!” he said grievously. “If anything had happened to you…”
She pushed back and stared seriously into his eyes.
“Nothing will take me from you,” she said flatly.
Her confidence on the matter silenced Theta for a minute, and with her persistent urging, he went to check on the rest of his men. Glancing around the torch-lit interior, Rose saw many of the same terrified faces she’d passed earlier on her way to the battle. Old men and women along with several children were bunkered against the cold stone walls. One little girl was staring expectantly at her, as if awaiting some kind of answer Rose wasn’t sure she could give. She realized then how terrified everyone must be, knowing that the war wasn’t going in their favor.
Rose pushed herself away from the wall and kneeled next to the little girl, who's face was smudged with dirt.
“My dad is a soldier,” the child whispered in the darkness. “Can I go see him now? Is the danger past yet?”
Rose brushed her course hair back from her eyes.
“It will be soon,” she said soothingly, even though she didn’t know herself.
She glanced down at the heavy armor over her body and shook away a dark flash of self-doubt. On the inside, she felt just like the little girl, but she was in a position now to change the outcome as an adult, and as a warrior. The responsibility weighed her down when she realized how much these people were counting on her and all of Theta's men to protect him. The vow she had taken earlier took on a renewed sense of gravity.
She helped the girl find some of her older relatives before tracking down Theta, who was speaking animatedly to his advisors.
“They won’t be able to hold off the aerial bombardment,” one of them was saying. “Our supply of arrows is going to run out before the Hoard is remotely effected. We’re running out of options.”
“Save one,” another advisor interrupted. “Sire, you know what must be done. You have to summon the-“
“I won’t!” Theta roared over him. “Ask anything else of me but that!”
Rose stepped up to his side and laid a calming hand on his arm, and Theta shook as he turned to face her, only relaxing when he recognized her serene face. Whatever terrible rage had taken him subsided.
“Doctor?” she asked quietly.
He started to say something to her, but was cut off by the sound of piercing trumpets outside, those of Admar's army. A moment later, a bloodied soldier staggered into the room.
Theta ran to catch him before he could fall.
“My Lord,” the man gasped. “The second wall falls. The Could’ve Been King…awaits you.”
Theta lowered his head as the brave soldier breathed his last breath. The worst case scenario had come to pass. The Hoard had weakened his army to the breaking point, and cleared the way for Admar’s men to storm the castle. Now the usurper King had waltzed into his midst, and there was only one way forward.
The Overlord closed the eyes of the soldier respectfully before standing to his full height. Rose stared anxiously at him, eager for his instructions. But Theta simply shook his head and signaled to a nearby page to bring his heavy helmet.
“No!” Rose cried out as she realized what he was about to do. “There’s thousands of enemies outside! You can’t go out there!”
She barred his path bodily, and pushed against his unrelenting chest.
Theta felt the tears welling up in his eyes as he gazed down at her lovingly.
“I have to,” he said calmly. “Destroying the Could’ve Been King is the only way to stop this madness. With his death, Admar’s army will splinter and weaken, giving us the chance we need to overcome them.”
“Even if the King’s forces abandon the Inquisitor, he still leads an army greater than ours!” Rose protested. “This is suicide! I won’t let you go!”
Theta grasped Rose’s arms and pulled her impossibly close to him.
“You must,” he said, his voice breaking with heavy emotion.
He glanced around the room, leading her eyes to see what was at stake. The little girl Rose had comforted earlier was staring out at her, along with hundreds of other expectant faces.
Rose felt her lower lip trembling as she fought the desire to beg him to stay, to tell him this wasn’t fair, and a hundred other things, none of them the right thing. Instead, she pulled him into a scorching kiss, perhaps the last she’d ever share with him. As their lips and tongues moved, they said all the things they couldn’t say in words. Rose felt her breath hitch as they pulled apart, almost physically unable to let him go. She breathed in and out slowly as she fought the hot intensity of his eyes, urging her to return to him.
“I love you,” Rose whispered encouragingly.
Theta gripped her mail-covered hand and kissed her tenderly over the armor.
“I will come back to you,” he murmured.
Unable to stay any longer, Theta brushed past her and shouted for the main entrance to be unbolted. His private guard rushed to his side as late afternoon sunlight spilled in from the opening door, blinding to the inhabitants after being in the torch-lit room for so long. Rose had to shield her eyes as she watched her beloved become a silhouette against the blaze of the sun. In another blink, he was gone.
Theta stepped out onto the battlefield and hardened his heart at the sight of so many of his men felled by the opposition. Only a few were left standing and still engaged in hand-to-hand combat. Many had retreated when the Could’ve Been King advanced inside the castle grounds. His presence alone was enough to cause some brave men to abandon their cause and their faith altogether.
The King was sitting at that moment in the center of the market square, now decimated beyond recognition and left in smoldering ash. As he caught sight of Theta approaching, he slipped off his horse and came to stand imposingly over his enemy, his dark green cape catching in the wind.
“Overlord,” the King breathed with pleasure, his silver mask glinting off the sunlight.
Theta scowled as his page handed up his helmet, and he placed it over his head.
“When I’ve dispatched you, your soulless minions will be forced back to the depths from which they came,” the Overlord growled.
The Could’ve Been King tilted his head and laughed quietly.
“Is that so?” he responded.
The King withdrew his sword and passed it from one hand to another, giving its weight his full concentration before looking sharply back at the Overlord.
“When I kill you, I’m going to mine the keep where your people are cowering in fear of what’s to come. I’m going to rape your women and murder your children, taking everything from them that they hold dear. But then I’m going to find your mate. I’ll slit her throat slowly, and as the life blood spills out, I’ll savor the knowledge that I’ve murdered not one, but both of the women…one and the same woman that you’ve held most dear.”
Theta’s blade was out and clashing against the King’s in under a second, giving the latter barely enough time to maneuver his stance into the properly defensive pose. Theta retracted his sword only long enough to crash down again on the other side of the King’s blade, and then again relentlessly, until the King was forced back several steps.
Theta’s eyes were blazing, a hatred that he thought was burnt out returning in a force magnified by all that he desired to protect now.
The King could hardly recover from the bombardment of Theta’s sword as he was forced down to the ground, nearly losing his weapon in the process. But Theta’s aggression blinded him to his weakened defenses, and left his lower half vulnerable to the King’s counterstrike.
Before Theta could register it, the King had withdrawn a shorter blade from his boot and stabbed viciously into Theta’s thigh. The Overlord flew backwards as the unexpected pain shot through his leg and severely crippled his movements. The Could’ve Been King took the opportunity to dust himself off as he stood to his full height, and brandished his serrated blade imposingly.
Theta quickly tied off the wound with a scrap of cloth and readied to face his enemy once more, gritting his teeth through his agony.
“It’s going to take more than that to stop me,” he growled. “You murdered her. You killed my Rose!”
“I know,” the King answered in a bored tone. “I just…couldn’t help myself.”
Theta screamed as he launched himself toward him, twisting at the last second to avoid the King’s parry, and swiping his broadsword across the villain’s right shoulder, just below his protective armoring.
The King gasped as his muscles tore under the blade, but held his ground as he rounded on his opponent. Black blood dripped from the wound ominously.
“Good!” the King cheered through his pain. “Better than I expected. Your anger is a gift.”
Theta frowned as the King crossed blades with him, and they battled for dominance as they moved in a tight circle. A group of soldiers was forming around them, after losing interest in their own fights. Some of the men were cheering on the Overlord, while the Never-weres looked on hungrily.
Theta broke away from the Could’ve Been King and leaned on his good leg as he caught his breath.
“Anger is a curse,” he said calmly. “But you traded what little grace you had long ago. You sold your soul and hid the cost of it behind that mask.”
The King shook his head as he swept his sword up in a broad arc, bringing it down on Theta’s steel to make him favor his bad leg, and caused the Overlord to buckle under immense pain. With a quick flick of his wrist, the King sent Theta’s sword flying far out of reach. The Overlord looked up defiantly as his enemy gazed down at him thoughtfully.
“Do you know why Saman made the mirror?” he asked in a strangely quiet voice. “Beyond the children’s fairytale that’s been handed down, he had another purpose. He knew that I was gathering power, and that I had done…unspeakable things to garner it. One of those things was to gain an army more powerful than ever before, one that fed on human fear and nightmares.”
“You're not talking about the Never-were’s...” Theta muttered in consternation. "Of what do you speak?"
“Something you’ll be thankful you didn’t live to see,” the King replied, as he readied his blade to strike.
He brought down his sword with merciless strength as the Overlord shut his eyes, but the blade was interrupted, caught between the guards of two intercrossed swords, before being thrown violently backwards. The King was so surprised he dropped his weapon as the blonde soldier leapt over the kneeling form of the Overlord.
Rose uncrossed her swords and held them at her sides as she approached, her face twisted in fury. The King lifted his arms up to shield his body, but they couldn’t protect him from her rage. She swept in with both blades in unison, swiping across his front and sending him to the ground. He didn’t have time to recover before she was upon him, holding her crossed swords up to his neck.
"You don't have the courage," he sneered. "Your people will fall!"
“When all the monsters in the world are gone, we won't need courage anymore,” she growled as her swords jerked outwards, slitting his throat.
The movement jostled his mask and as his black blood oozed out, causing Rose to drop back in disgust. Beneath his mask was an opaque skein in the shape of a human face, but with swirling, unidentifiable entities moving beneath the surface. Rose gasped as Theta reached out and grabbed her from behind, bringing her firmly to his side.
“What is that? What are those things?” Rose cried as she stared down at the King's face.
Theta’s eyes widened, as he remembered another story, older than any he’d ever heard, and had almost completely forgotten.
“The Meanwhiles,” he whispered in terror.
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