Ochibenara watches in awe as a bright light descends to the ground. It has been more than twelve years since she lost her sight, and she had come to accept that she would never again be able to witness anything of beauty ever again.

And yet, she can see the purest light that has ever existed in the world as it slowly descends near the fortress. She fled after Falkorgakohn awakened, as it and the Great One’s eye were too overwhelming for a lowly being like herself to stand in the presence of.

Seeing the star, however, has clarified something for the disposable servant of the friar of the water.

Comparing the Great One to the star has given voice to a breath in Ochibenara’s heart that she could not let out before.

The Great One craves and demands destruction. It often killed servants on the spot for simple transgressions, and according to the stories held by some of the lowest and oldest servants of the temple, the arrival of Falkorgakohn at the temple caused the Great One to kill everyone present, and one of the indentured serfs was immediately promoted to friar until her own folly lead to her death.

The Great One, according to its very own words passed forth by the friars, is evil. It brings death for no other reason than to destroy. It perpetuates war in order to fuel death. It spreads spells with heinous costs with the goal of rekindling the flames of war.

And, the mana that comes from the Great One instills madness and bloodlust into those of weak will. With only passing exposure, it has nearly claimed Ochibenara more than once, and has made her ill afterwards.

The star is pure in seemingly perfect contrast. It is the epitome of beauty, for it has shown itself to the blind arachnid woman. It is the epitome of good, for it has granted a gentle and loving warmth to the lost soul of a wayward orphan through a mana that is as comforting as the Great One’s is unnerving. Even as it dissolves, it leaves behind a true and cleansing flame that sparkles into the sky.

Unlike the Great One, which seeks death and destruction for itself, the star is cleansing the world of impurities and resetting them to their most beautiful form.

Ochibenara can no longer see the Star, but the sparkles it has left behind inspire her to hold her hands high.

“I have seen, and I have been healed,” declares the arachnid woman. She has her normal red blindfold off as she bathes in the beautiful sight of the sparkles, Children of the Star, “Bestow your warmth upon me, oh Great Star, and I shall spread the word of your beauty for all eter-gah!”

Ochibenara cries out as she is forcibly gagged by her robe’s collar being gripped from behind, and she is lifted haphazardly off of the ground, dropping her ragged blindfold in her surprise. A growling reptilian voice emanates from a creature oozing with powerful mana, but it doesn’t speak. Instead, Ochibenara tries to struggle free of her clothing as she cries out, “Unhand me! I must see the Children of the Star! I must-wah!” She is jerked by the creature, which seems to be flying, and she coughs. Her pitiful tunic is caught under her armpits and chin, and she isn’t strong enough to tear it in spite of its poor material quality.

She decides she must use magic, so she uses her spell to observe the creature carrying her.

Her heart nearly stops.

Glimpsing the creature through mana was a mistake, as it radiates a powerful pool of magical energy, in spite of the common nature of the aura itself. It appears to be similar to a dragon, but the way she viewed it shows its true nature, and though it’s currently the size of a human with reptilian features, the being dragging her away through the air is a member of a race thought to be extinct; the Faormyrs.

She feels nauseous immediately, but she has nothing to expel, thankfully. The creature carries her to a group of similarly powerful beings, though one stands out as being a void, rather than a source of mana.

She has heard enough stories to recognize the bane of the friars; a single man who has been managing to disrupt the long-laid plans of the friars to serve the Great One.

He is none other than the ‘Harbinger of Calamity’, the ‘Feldrok Sorcerer’, and more recently, the ‘Silencer of Magic’; Daniel kos Lawson himself.

In his arms, he has an even more terrifying thing, though it somehow doesn’t look the same as it did to her before.

It’s Falkorgakohn, but it is no longer a ‘flexible-ceramic’ object elongated into a sort of strangely-shaped scepter requiring an ancient song to prevent the creation and summoning of monsters. Instead, it is a small, living being like a baby. It is even crying instead of shrieking, distressed like nothing more than an actual infant, rather than an awakened tool of chaos. It has a fairly void-like presence as well, creating a hazy cloud that swirls around it, pulling mana towards itself to consume it, rather than emitting the sinister energy that was coming off it a little while ago.

Exactly like the young woman nearby, being comforted by other women and Daniel as Ochibenara is dropped in front of them.

“Yaulwembor? Who is this?” asks the human male’s voice.

The Faormyr huffs in irritation. The group seems to be observing the Children of the Star as well, but they are not bowing in supplication or holding their hands high in jubilee, as they should be. They are witnessing the birth and rise of perfection, righteousness, and beauty, and yet, they sound serious and distressed.

The female dragon in her humanoid form, crouching with the mana-consuming girl, growls, “Who are you? And, what are you?”

Ochibenara knows they are speaking to her, but she is forbidden from answering questions about herself or her mission to those who are not the friar, a priest, or a mendicant in service to the water.

“I know she’s a servant of our enemy,” replies Daniel with a cold tone. “I saw her near Star before she disappeared.”

“My Liege, we don’t have time for this. We should leave before that spell detonates.”

“I think it already has,” replies a different human as he points. “And, I think I was warned about this.”

Ochibenara looks in the direction his mana image is pointing. She smiles as she sees the sparkles, even from this distance. And, as is their right as the inheritors of the will of the Star, they are spreading and growing more numerous.

The drider begins cackling, ascending into full and triumphant laughter as she holds her hands high. “Behold! The Star has blessed this world with its glorious children! It is beauty! It is power! It is divine!” She clasps her hands together, and the tears of joy begin to fall once more. She couldn’t be happier, and even if these people kill her now, she will live forever in the embrace of the Children of the Star.

“What are you talking about?” asks the other human, and the female dragon grumbles, “Great. Another crazy cultist. And one worshipping an annihilating weapon.”

“You may speak so callously, dragon, because you do not recognize divine beauty when you see it! The Star is so mighty, that it allows even the blind to see!”

She hears the other woman who hasn’t spoken yet whisper, “She’s using magic to see, Darling.”

“We don’t have time for this,” replies Daniel. “Hekate, are you alright?”

“I… I think so… I’m sorry, Daniel… I… I almost…”

“Don’t worry about it. Can you tell what it’s doing?” asks the human male.

The male dragon replies, “No, my Liege.”

“The Children of the Star are spreading!” exclaims Ochibenara. “They will fill this world with their pure and cleansing beauty and their perfect mana!” She hums happily as she continues to observe giddily, and the sparkles continue to grow more numerous as they climb into the sky.

The female dragon grumbles, “Can we kill this idiot, Harbinger? I sincerely doubt anyone’s going to miss her.”

“No,” replies the meddlesome Emperor of the Fievegal. “She may be able to give us some answers, not least of which are about Star, here.” He’s doing his best, but the infant he’s calling ‘Star’ in the Trade language continues to cry, even as he cradles it.

The female dragon finally sighs and offers, “Ugh… Hand the little one over, Harbinger.”

As soon as she reaches for the baby, though, it immediately screeches in the sound that startles everyone back, and Daniel immediately begins singing a song in a language Ochibenara doesn’t recognize as everyone else, including the drider, is driven back. “{Rock’a’bye Baby, on the tree top. When the wind blows, the cradle will rock. When the bow breaks, the cradle will fall. And down will come baby, cradle and all…}”

Miraculously, Falkorgakohn immediately starts to quiet down, and it even stops crying as it nestles in Daniel’s arms. The magic spell for vision starts to fade for Ochibenara, though she can still see the sparkles in the distance, which become the only thing she can make out in the darkness of her blindness, other than what she can ‘picture’ from sounds and air currents around her.

“How…?” whispers the drider. “How does an otherworlder know songs that silence Falkorgakohn? And why… is it… like that?”

Ochibenara spent most of her life not believing in miracles. She has had to eat refuse to survive. Livestock feed, hard, moldy bread, and foul water were blessings for her at times. Yet, no matter how low she has sunk, she never truly wanted destruction. She only wants survival for herself. Miracles don’t promote survival. They occur at the convergence of an expected doom and an unexpected blessing, the latter being something that is almost never bestowed upon those of the lowest rungs like her, let alone be witnessed by her.

Daniel finally replies as he holds the infant protectively, looking at the sparks based on the direction his voice projects when he speaks, “Something I’ve learned in all of my adventures so far is that the greatest power of the most powerful is often their greatest curse as well. Too powerful to die, yet too weak to resist what was done.” His voice turns towards her, and he adds, “The largest creatures on Earth often washed ashore from the sea, and they would suffocate slowly under their own weight. The people you serve are the real monsters preying on children like this as much as the children of humans and spider-like women such as yourself. They have made an enemy of me specifically, and I have a lot of people invested in tracking them down and dragging them out into the light. And there, I will show you a true star to be worshipped.”

***

The strange crater continues to grow and fester before everyone’s eyes, though the void artillery attack hasn’t detonated the way anyone expected, which has the group on edge. The strange half-spider woman seems to be blind, but as the stories go, seems capable of seeing the extremely bright lights coming from the sparks or embers floating off of the apparent flames.

Rikuto asks, “What do we intend to do about that?”

“If it’s a dud, I don’t want to be here if it does discharge, so we’re leaving,” replies Daniel. “You’re welcome to come with us. We’ll need to debrief and figure out how to track down Zuzia and Yaulander.”

“They’ll probably retreat to the Grand Principality,” replies Doephluev pointedly.

“But, isn’t it burning like a fire?” asks Rikuto.

Daniel answers with a serious tone, “My guess is that it’s some kind of disintegration from the intense mana. If it’s anything like radiation, it should decay off fairly quickly. Regardless, we can’t stay.” He nods at Hekate, and everyone looks at her. Her ears perk up attentively, and her tail twitches.

“What?” asks the ravenette. She looks at her armor and clothes, pivoting around.

“Your hair and tail, your Grace,” offers Neith.

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

When she looks at her tail, she jumps in surprise once more. “Am… Am I glowing?”

Sure enough, the fox-eared Empress’s hair and fur are glowing an eerie blue color, even against the daylight. Daniel has seen this in the darkness of the Citadel when the two were conquering it, but it seems that her mana is rapidly increasing.

“We’ll discuss it at the Citadel,” states Daniel. He whistles, which draws Yaulwembor’s attention. The human waves her down, and she immediately flies to the group, landing nearby as Neith wearily eases everyone to the ground so he can transform.

“Your Greatness, your Graces,” starts Resken. “If you’d like, I’ll volunteer myself to scout the fire from much closer.”

“No,” replies Daniel. “Our involvement here has already been too great. The mana should burn itself out eventually, and we have to get Amalaskae back to the Citadel and recover everyone that’s injured. Not to mention the Hegemony.”

Yaulwembor keeps her eye on the strange lightshow suspiciously, and Daniel requests, “Hekate, can you take us back to the Citadel?”

The feldrok girl takes a breath and exhales. “Yes! Leave it to me!” She begins casting, and Daniel instructs as he continues to cradle Star, “Helbeit, Resken, keep our blind friend close. Grendel Six, I’m sorry we won’t be able to gather equipment.”

Rikuto and Horaston scoff in disgust, and while the goblins are a bit disappointed.

Daniel explains to the Mornistae knights and young king, “You four can stay here, your Majesty. Though, there’s no telling where…” Daniel feels a chill as Doephluev, Gold, and Neith all visibly tense in his field of view, while a crackling sound starts behind him. He whirls to face Yaulwembor, asking, “Yaulwembor!?”

Just as Hekate’s spell is starting to swirl energy around them, the faormyr has two dark spheres, one over each of her hands. They aren’t nearly as large as the ones from the void artillery, but their shared traits, including powerful mana swirling around her forearms to fill the spheres with power, are unmistakable.

She launches them forth in the direction the void artillery shots came from just as the group is vanishing.

In an instant, everyone is in the Citadel, diving away from Yaulwembor while Gold drags Daniel and Star back in a powerful leap with her wings.

“What the hell!?” shouts Rikuto, laying flat on the ground as he and his knights similarly dove away from the draconic being. The soldiers of Grendel Two, who have taken over the watch for the transition station, are startled and call out, “Your Grace! Your Greatness!”

Horaston bolts to his feet, shouting, “You absolute fool! After all of that, you cast-...!”

Yaulwembor’s hand snaps up, gripping his neck tightly and lifting him effortlessly off of the ground with one arm.

Daniel pries himself free of Gold, running to the Faormyr as Rikuto aims the pirate-like flintlock pistol he was allowed to borrow again for the mission. He aims at Yaulwembor, but the faormyr growls in a very deep, alligator-like tone that noticeably vibrates her relatively slender throat.

The mechanic, still cradling Star for fear of the infant feldrok becoming even more distressed, places his hand on Yaulwembor’s forearm, gently trying to urge her to lower the dangling knight. Her nails are partially digging into his flesh, but she hasn’t killed him yet. Part of it likely has to do with her transformation into the much smaller humanoid form that she’s in, which condensed her massive, naturally sharmellkolle-scaled body down into a suspected invincible, but much less physically-strong form.

The human urges gently, “Yaulwembor, please set him down. Please.” He gestures at the infant, who starts to whimper, squirming tiny, underdeveloped feet and paws.

Her gaze tracks to the baby, and then the knight as Rikuto orders, “Daniel, make her release him.”

“Shut up if you don’t want us all to die,” retorts the American. Rikuto has no idea what Yaulwembor is capable of, since mimicking the void artillery is a normal afternoon for her, apparently.

“She has to answer for what she just did!” snaps Loxourren. “That spell was the void artillery spell! We have to return and…”

There’s a distinct, sharp click that halts everyone. Gold, who has closed the distance on Daniel to try to pull him back if she needs to, halts.

Like a pump-action shotgun, the sound is pretty easily identifiable, especially followed by the low thrumming roar of one of the hottest-burning substances in the world filling in around razor-sharp, leaf-shaped teeth.

Daniel clicks his tongue against his teeth, trying to mimic the sound Yaulwembor herself makes as a sort of idle communication, which she mostly uses to ‘laugh’. Daniel squeezes her arm gently, and he keeps his tone level as he warns, “Rikuto, she doesn’t understand any languages, but she is among the top three most powerful individuals in the Fievegal. Possibly the world. She really can and will kill us all. Stand your knights down, or I’m backing off.”

Hekate approaches, using her strange fake ‘magic spells’ that convey her intent, and Yaulwembor pays attention to her.

The ancient apex predator huffs, ‘spitting’ out a small flame that Daniel can feel triggers Gold to grip his collar, barely restraining herself from upholding her promise to Ryuogriar. The blonde dragon warns softly, “Daniel, I really won’t be able to do anything if she launches an attack. Let Hekate handle it…”

Daniel replies in his warmly gentle tone, since he knows Yaulwembor can only respond to the tone, since she doesn’t understand the words. “I’m the only one who has actual leverage over her, and the only one she likely cares about protecting. I have to trust her, or she won’t trust me.”

“Ryuo is going to be extremely perturbed,” warns the dragon.

Doephluev counters, “Let her. It won’t matter much if Yaulwembor snaps and ruins the peace treaty. Isn’t that right, Rikuto?” She then teases a little mockingly, “Though, I suppose, your absence from Mornistae has nothing to do with us. King Rikuto? Haven’t seen him. Knights? Why would we have knights incinerated to ash?”

“Doephluev…” whines Hekate.

Seeming to have his own idea, Klur walks up behind Loxourren, and there’s a spark of electricity that causes Yaulwembor to snap her gaze to him, while startling the knight. The electricity comes from Klur’s golem arm, which Daniel will definitely be asking questions about when he has time to worry about something that should be a dramatic event on its own, and yet, is overshadowed by so much other turmoil.

Loxourren is dropped instantly, twitching on the ground while the goblin pivots and sucker-punches Rikuto in the hip with the same arm. Immediately, the Japanese man is pounced on by Locke and Olk, who disarm him before his pistol can be discharged, and Rikuto cries out in surprise and anger.

“What!? No! Let me-...! Daniel!”

Klur aims his revolver at Chebnom before the gatonine can react, and the goblin Field Marshal growls, “You are speaking to his Imperial Grace, the Emperor of the Fievegal. Speak with reverence, or learn to speak without tongue.”

Daniel wants to defuse, and he urges, “Please, Yaulwembor.”

Horaston is losing strength, with his kicks and attempts to dislodge her fingers failing completely. Blood is trickling down his neck into his colorful green armor. Daniel recognizes them for what they are meant to look like, but it does have its merits in a world where such things would have minimal precedence.

The Faormyr finally drops Horaston, and the moment his feet hit the ground, he stumbles back, falling onto his back side as he tries to get away from Yaulwembor, coughing and nursing his throat.

“Sir Chebnom,” starts Daniel. “Tend to Sir Horaston. Rikuto, Grendel Six will escort you to the conference room in this building. I need to get our allies to triage, and we’ll return for debrief.”

“I’m sorry, D-... Your Grace… But, we need to begin addressing the void artillery shot. And…” He looks at the Faormyr, who snuggles up to Daniel like she did a good job. The American is cautious about putting her on edge, so he gently pets her head. Thankfully, Star has maintained a relatively docile nap, since the baby seems to have been completely exhausted from its long life of being used as an object. The Japanese man adds coldly, “Your ‘pet’s assistance’.”

“She’s not a pet,” retorts Daniel. “Yaulwembor has a severe auditory processing disorder. She doesn’t understand speech, but she’s not an animal. And, you can do whatever you want with Yaulander’s attempt to kill us all. I intend to regroup, figure out the best way to retrieve Zuzia, the artifact, and destroy the void artilleries, and then, since the Hegemony didn’t get the memo, give them the same carrot-stick treatment you got. And, I’m running out of carrots.”

This worries the younger Earthling, since Daniel’s tone is grave and serious.

Hekate finally calls for attention. “Daniel, I’m still glowing… Am I going to die?”

“How do you feel?” asks the mechanic immediately, doing his best to juggle everyone’s concerns, which is admittedly overwhelming him. He needs to figure out how to handle Star, since the infant seems strictly attached to him, and he needs to figure out what Amalaskae’s condition is, since she’s still unconscious on the ground, with Neith watching over her.

The raven-haired teen replies, “I feel fine. Great, even. But, doesn’t this mean I absorbed a bunch of magic?”

Daniel nods. “As far as I know it. I think Star received some as well.”

“From that range?” asks Doephluev, surprised.

“All the more reason to stay away from it,” replies Daniel. “I imagine the intense mana reaction we saw…” He looks at Rikuto. “Actually, I think we’ll do some more research before we definitively land on anything.”

“Wha-!? Hey! We need to work together to-...”

“The Fievegal’s answer is no,” states Doephluev sternly. “Even if it’s hazardous, we have no agreements with the Grand Principality, its exclave within the Kingdom of Ahmpur, or the Kingdom of Mornistae regarding dealing with the hazardous waste of their warfare tactics. As you are aware, we have our own affairs to attend to.”

Rikuto doesn’t like this answer, but he doesn’t get any help from Daniel.

“Look at the bright side,” offers Gold a little bluntly, though she’s still cautious of Yaulwembor and Star. “You’ll be able to sanction the Grand Principality for your superweapons. Assuming the Empire will help you take them back.”

“People are going to die…” replies Rikuto a little distantly, sensing that he’s not going to get help, but also realizing they aren’t entirely wrong.

“Many of those people have hoped for our deaths,” replies Doephluev mercilessly. “They see us as monsters. Assuming we even could help, why would we secretly save people who hate us just for them to continue hating us?” She holds her hand up to stop Hekate, who looks like she’s just about to speak. “You and your kingdom already agreed to turn over the artifact and Zuzia, which you have not been able to do. We will not sacrifice more of the Fievegal’s resources to increase a debt with no signs of being repaid.” She approaches Daniel and hugs the arm that is still cradling Star. “If you wish for our aid, we’ll need some alternative form of compensation. Perhaps Grand Prince Yaulander himself will suffice. Until then,...” She looks at Daniel, asking somewhat facetiously, but with a sharp-edged point to her words, “Aren’t these men still prisoners, Darling?”

Daniel ponders this for a moment, and Rikuto is smacked in the face with the reality. “Daniel! This is larger than-...!”

“If it proves to be a threat to the Fievegal, we will address it,” states Daniel coldly. “Because I don’t have time to make use of you right now, I’d rather send you home. You can do whatever you want about Yaulander’s attack. Any objections?” The mechanic looks at Hekate and Doephluev specifically, since they are the highest ranking women present.

Hekate’s ears droop. She doesn’t seem to agree fully, but she also doesn’t want to disagree with Daniel.

“Empress Hekate,” pleads Rikuto. “You know that it can’t be ignored!”

Her ears shift to fold back in a more irritable expression. “Grand Prince Yaulander kos… Strazal…”

“Strylaph,” groans Doephluev quietly.

“Strylaph deserves worse than the fire. I’m just worried about that Zuzia lady. If we save her first, you should think about how you’re going to make up for letting him have those things. Daniel still hasn’t told even me how to make the God-killers, and you let the evilest of all the enemies on Zenkon take the next worst weapon right out from under your nose. Don’t lecture me.” She holds her hand out, declaring, “I agree with Daniel. Heralesse and Eri would be sad if we kept you prisoner as well. So go away and deal with your problems yourself.”

Before Rikuto can object further or make another move, a magic circle appears, transporting him somewhere else. She does the same to the other Mornistae knights as well, and after the last one, Daniel asks, “You… did return them to Mornistae, right?”

Hekate grins cheekily, replying instantly, “Nope! I sent them to the island with the Selkethians! Heeheehee!”

Daniel goes pale, and Gold laughs. Seeing Daniel’s distress, Hekate quickly adds, “No! I was joking! I did send them to Mornistae. Safe and sound. The gardeners will probably be upset, though.” She fidgets, adding disappointedly, “It was the only place I know of that wouldn’t have people in the way.”

Daniel sighs and smiles. “That’s fine. You had me going there, Sweetpea. Well-played.” He then pats Yaulwembor’s shoulder so he can step away for the moment, though Dophluev keeps hold of his arm. “Now, I need to figure out what to do with Star while we figure out how to stop the fire.”

“What?” asks Hekate with surprise.

Gold snickers deviously. “The Harbinger is a big softie. Did you really think he’d ignore it forever?”

“Senn and Bellphine both warned me that it was coming,” replies Daniel. “Before anything, we need to square away our defense. But, we’ll run through some options. Neith, please carry Lady Amalaskae. Helbeit, Resken, keep an eye on our friend.”

“Her name’s Ochibenara, your Grace,” replies Resken.

“If it’s all the same to you, Harbinger of Calamity and the Empress of Darkness, return me to the Children of the Star. I would rather enjoy pure beauty and warmth than a cold prison cell.”

“Tell me about this little one, and I’ll think about it.”

“You already know more about it than I do.”

“Mind your tone,” warns Helbeit.

But, Daniel says, “It’s fine. Explain what you know on the way, or you’ll go straight to an empty cell where your magic won’t work.”

Ochibenara frowns as she ‘looks’ at him, though it’s clear her eyes are almost useless to her, other than to aid in her facial expressions. “What assurances or incentives do I have, ‘your Grace’?”

“Other than not being vaporized?” asks Gold dryly.

“I have witnessed the true Divine,” retorts the spider-woman. “To die now would make the world poorer if I am the only voice willing to sing of this heavenly grace bestowed upon us.”

“It was a weapon,” retorts Neith. He is standing with Amalaskae cradled in his arms.

“I’ll make you the archpriestess of the Divine Star,” states Hekate seriously. “If you help us, and you don’t betray us, you can be the voice of the Star’s followers, and you can talk all you want about it. But only if you help us.”

The drider ponders this very seriously, and Doephluev adds, “As the current Sovereign Empress, I second her Greatness Empress Hekate’s decree. If you earn it, you will be the archpriestes; the first and most loyal truthsayer of the word of the Divine Star.” She stalks closer to the arachnid woman, whispering with a tone that Daniel knows all too well. He can’t hear what the archoneldwyn former-assassin is saying, but he knows one thing for certain.

Ochibenara is already suckered in.

***