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To Court the Fèidh

Chapter Fourteen – FINALE -

© Cederwyn Whitefurr

8th October, 2021

All Rights Reserved.

Turning away, the Buck idly tapped his cheek with a finger, almost dismissing the human behind him as beneath his contempt and notice.

Without warning, the Arch-Magi unleashed his full magicks, intending to burn the upstart Deer to ashes then and there... but the blending of Fèidh and human magicks effortlessly dissipated them. Irritated, the Buck merely flicked an ear backwards, before he looked over his shoulder.

“Really?” Came the mocking voice. “You would sink so low, as to try to strike at me from behind? Your magicks will not harm me man-child, you should have figured that out now.”

Curious, the Stag began pacing as he thought, idly trailing a hooflet over books and scrolls, then dismissing them as uninteresting.

“I am neither human, nor am I Fèidh, I am... I suppose you would call me a hybrid. I have both the magicks that were taught to me – by you, and others of the Order and the Fèidh magicks. So, yes... I can counter your pathetic magicks without conscious thought. Truly, the pathetic, immature and small-mindedness of you and your so called vaunted Order...”

“Speak not of that which you do not understand, beast!”

“Oh, I understand so much more now – your mind is...shall I demonstrate?”

Screaming, the Arch-Magi writhed as he saw this beast in his mind, standing there, flicking through memories and thoughts like they were a great library.

Pathetic, ignorant, small – I would pity you, if you were not so contemptible and shallow! My beloved was right, you are capable of so much more than... this!

Get out of my head beast, you have no right no...

With a sigh, the Stag snorted and waved a paw, then the Arch-Magi gasped and turned ashen as he felt what he thought of as furred fingers around his very heart.

“I could stop it with a single thought...”

“No...please...”

Raising an eyebrow, Alexander sneered contemptuously. “Mercy? Arch-Magi? Do you claim clemency for your unspeakable crimes and actions? How far back shall we go? Yesterday? Ten years? Twenty?”

“Mercy, I beg...”

With a snarl, the Stag shuddered and once more pushed the darkness away that threatened within him.

“One problem – with being that which I am... I still have human-like emotions and feelings... Speak with care Arch-Magi, my patience is not an infinite thing. Now, do you know how many Therian's you sent me to torture? How many cried and pleaded and even begged for leniency and mercy? What was the answer you told me, when I was but an initiate?”

“No...please!”

“Oh, that's right...they're beasts, listen not to their wailing and pleading, for it is a trap designed for you to feel mercy and compassion – to spare their lives, when they are mere godless, soulless beasts who deserve to die...”

Shaking his head, the Deer sighed through his nostrils.

“I understand now Arch-Magi, I understand... oh, so much more now...”

“We cared for you, raised you...taught you...”

Without warning, Alexander's paw squeezed the Arch-Magi's throat and cruelly lifted him off the floor and slammed him against the wall before he leaned forwards, his lips curling back in sudden rage. As he squeezed, he could feel and hear the vertebrae creaking.

“Where was the love? The compassion? Such things you never taught any of the initiates! We were trained to be cruel, callous and violent! Punished for the slightest failings, driven to be ruthless, to act without care, mercy or compassion – which was drilled into us day and night! How many Arch-Magi? How many innocents did you and your precious Order corrupt and turn to the darkness?”

Once again, the Arch-Magi gurgled and his eyes bulged, as Alexander's forearm muscles tensed.

“Love, compassion, mercy...” Wheezed the Arch-Magi. “Therian's will use...”

“On one thing, we agree.. I have never known love, compassion, kindness... Your order only taught me to fear, to hate, to destroy that which I feared, for through my fear, did you gain power! No more!”

“How...would a beast know of love...of...urk!”

Alexander lifted him higher, his fingers contracting as he glared into the Arch-Magi's eyes.

“No, you do not get to own that! You know nothing of which you speak! Your guards took from me more than just my beloved – and that of my unborn fawn! Yes, I see the shock in your eyes – she was with my child – a pure, innocent...”

Alexander snarled, his lips curling back even further, saliva dripping from his muzzle to spatter on the floor.

“Do you know what your guards did to her? Do you? Do you know how they took silver shod clubs and...”

He was lost for words, instead, he placed a hooflet against the Arch-Magi's head and closed his eyes.

“I do...now...so will you...”

Screaming, the Arch-Magi was subjected to the pain, the degradation, the pure agony, of what they had done to Fianna – his heart nearly burst from the pain and sickening imagery that flooded him.

“That was a single moment, between one heartbeat and another...” Alexander raged as he squeezed even tighter, feeling the vertebrae splintering under his iron-like grasp.

“I...” Wheezed the Arch-Magi.

“No... No more will I listen to the lies and half-truths that spill from your mouth Arch-Magi. I will grant you something, that you never granted any other...”

Flexing his forearm muscles, Alexander exerted himself and with a loud crunch like that of a human crushing leaves beneath their booted feet, did he shatter the Arch-Magi's vertebrae and watched impassively as the body kicked and eventually went still.

Alexander stalked from the room, clutching the head of the Arch-Magi by the hair.

*

Scaling the walls, Alexander stood on the highest parapet and looked down at the Order members who were in the main courtyard.

“Hear me!” Alexander roared, his voice cracking like summer thunder, forcing their heads to lift up at stare at him. “You called me monster, beast... You wanted a monster? Here it is!”

Throwing the head down into the crowd, Alexander glared down at them in disgust and apathy.

“Beast, murderer!” Someone shouted.

“Aye?” Alexander growled. “You call me these, but look within yourself and without! I may be bestial of form, but my heart is pure it is...is...”

He stared as he heard the scrape of hooves, then five come forward, dragging Fianna who was bound and bloodied, her head hanging as they dragged her forwards.

Fianna, my love...

“Beast! Hear me!” One shouted. “Surrender and face your execution for your kind should not be permitted to live! Do such, and we shall be merciful – we will spare your Doe...”

No... Come the weak thought of Fianna into Alexander's mind. My love, do not...

Alexander, tears streaking down his muzzle, lost his senses and fled down the staircase, skidding to a halt as the guard pulled back Fianna's head and held a silver dagger close to her furred throat.

“Not a muscle...”

Alexander froze, then slowly sank to his knees, crossing one long leg over the other and placing his paws on the back of his neck as he bowed his head in submission and surrendered.

Guardsmen come forth, binding his ankles to his wrists, the silver infused leather causing him excruciating agony, forcing him to grit his teeth as a thick iron collar was snapped shut around his neck and shackled to the bindings of his wrists. A bar locked collar to shackle to ankle, making Alexander's head be pulled back, exposing his furred throat.

“Are they secure?” Asked the self-appointed leader.

“They are, no Therian has ever broken these – look at its face, the silver burns it, you can see the agony in its eyes, the shaking of its body...”

“So be it...”

Without warning, he slashed the dagger across Fianna's throat...

Her eyes went wide, as her life blood spurted from the mortal wound and she began to convulse and choke, drowning in her own blood.

“NO!” Alexander screamed.

They threw her body forwards, watching as she gurgled and bled out in seconds, her body going still and lifeless....

Alexander was lost in his grief, as he began to tremble. With a snarl, Alexander shattered the bindings that were meant to hold him, his body shimmering with a brilliant emerald green glow that faded as he knelt and clutched Fianna's head to his belly and wept unashamedly.

He heard the hiss of swords as they drew and surrounded him, but he did not care anymore, let them take him, torture him, kill him...it mattered not.

“Beast, you will...”

Tearfully, Alexander placed Fianna's head on the cold cobblestones, before he pressed his hooflets down and splayed them out. He remained on his knees, the shattered and twisted bindings around him, the deadly silver blades within striking range...

Alexander closed his eyes to try and stop the hot, bitter tears that filled them, before he spoke, his voice a barely heard whisper...

“You should have listened to me...” Alexander wept.

Far above the keep, the sky began to boil and churn. Black, billowing thunderclouds formed and boiled over each other, growing darker and more menacing by the second. Lightning crackled in the clouds as they heaved and grew, apprehensive looks spreading amongst the Order.

Thunder crackled and exploded, bolts of lightning struck the castle walls and blew chunks of mortar and stone loose, as Alexander remained kneeling, his body shaking. Suddenly, the skies seemed to open up and a torrential rain burst forth. Lightning slashed downwards, uncaring if it ignited human or not into flaring torches who vanished into charred remains.

Hail began to fall, chunks of it bigger than a head, crushing bones and armour alike. More lightning slashed, gouging the walls of the keep, almost as if nature itself was trying to scour this place of death and suffering from the very earth.

Order members screamed and ran – it mattered not – Alexanders magicks burst from the ground and ensnared them before exploding some into giblets, others it twisted and crushed, their screams silenced by the storm.

Alexander held nothing back, the magicks he wove in his grief were beyond anything he had envisioned or thought himself capable of...but it come with a terrible cost...

Finally, their corpses scattered across the cobbles – some melted into the very stone on which they'd stood – Alexander raised his muzzle to the sky, the rain washing away his salty tears – before he gasped and fell to the blood splattered cobbles, his breath slowly draining from him as he gave his life to the demands of the magicks he had summoned to bring his terrible retribution down on those who had taken everything from him...

A ghostly form wavered into existence, standing on cloven hooves, it walked silently to where the dead Stag now lay. Tears slipped down her cheeks as she knelt down and placed a translucent paw on his neck, then bowed her head.

“My love,” Come Fianna's voice, sibilant and filled with grief. “Come my beloved, our time has past, come...join with me, come...”

She rose, drawing a ghostly Stag up with her, as she took him by the paw and gazed up into his eyes. He stared at her, eyes wide and terrified, before she smiled and gently caressed his cheek.

“It is done my beloved...”

As the clouds were wrenched apart, a spear of sunlight pierced through and shone down upon the massacre.

“I killed them...all of them...” Come the broken sob from the stag. “They were like beasts and I slaughtered them like cattle...why? Why did they force my paw...”

With a sigh, the Doe shook her head. “Corruption and evil go hand in hand my beloved. They were so twisted from their lies, fears and mistruth – the darkness within them was unshakeable. You did not act as they did – for your love for me was what brought us to this point. Somewhere in your deepest heart, you knew I yet lived....”

Tears trickling down his muzzle, he turned to face her and shook his antlered head slowly.

“Truthfully my love, I did not. I...became that which I feared most...I let...the darkness within me – I embraced it, drew from it...and it almost – consumed me...”

With a sad nod, the doe reached up and caressed his cheek. “That be true my love – but within you lay that spark of compassion and love I knew what there. Now, please? Be at peace, it is done.”

“How...” He gestured with his spectral paws. “How can I be forgiven for – for all of this...”

With a sigh, the doe gently turned his head to look into his eyes, before she crept up on the tips of her cloven hooves and kissed him lightly on the forehead.

“Come with me my beloved. Be not afraid...for this is not the end of our journey together, it is just one step...”

Their ghostly forms wavered and faded away like a dream...

END