Chapter 65 - All the Colours of Light Part 2

Stone and dust plumed out from the impact of Nennia crashing into Eisel. Something broke. Glass.
Lillia spun to the sound of shattering behind her as Eisel erupted out of what looked like a broken window in the middle of the air. He flew at Lillia, blade first. The stained glass glittered as it careened toward Lillia.
She ducked out of the way, allowing Eisel to fly past her and roll to a stop on the ground. On the other side of the room, still by the door, Havoc raised a hand to the ceiling before slamming the ground. The tiles beneath Eisel shook in the moment before a massive forge surged out of the floor, sending more stone into the air.
Eisel kept his balance as the forge rose. He pulled back his arm, and a rune appeared in his palm. The air crackled around him. In the second before he could cast the spell, a thick cord of silk wrapped around his hand, and Nennia tore Eisel off the top of the forge.
“Come here, plaything! Where do you think you’re going?”
Eisel snapped with his free hand as Nennia reeled him in. A towering piece of broken glass erupted from the floor, severing the silk. More followed, trailing a line toward Nennia, who leapt backward, landing high on the wall.
Lillia righted herself after ducking; everything was happening so fast. The siege had been chaos. The fight against the Architect had been horrifying. This?
She wasn’t ready for this.
It was so far beyond what it had been like last time against him. She’d been able to follow him before, but—
With Nennia off him, Eisel spun back toward Havoc. The axe was suddenly in his hand. He pulled back.
Lillia ran forward. “This is my court, Eisel!” she called out.
[Lillia Activated - Run the Court]
“Is it?”
The initial activation of Run the Court crashed into Eisel. There was no spark of power in Lillia’s chest as it hit him. He simply looked over at the princess with an expression she knew from her aunt.
A glittering line of rose-gold shot out from under Lillia’s feet as she ran forward. Her castle wasn’t big here, but she still owned the ground she was standing on.
Another tether of silk shot from the ceiling. Eisel caught it on the way this time, cutting off the end with his summoned axe, then using the momentum of the same stroke to throw the silk into the path of oncoming arrows. They all fell to the ground in a useless bundle.
At the end of the slash, Eisel stomped the ground. Towering glass shards tore through the gaps in the flagstone toward Lillia. The sound of glass screeching against stone chased her as she dove to the side. Unlike Nennia, she couldn’t get far enough.
A blue and yellow blur flashed across Lillia’s vision and snatched her by the back of the dress, pulling the princess to the side and out of the way.
“I’ve got you, sugar!” Thorne said before she dumped Lillia on the ground as several of the glass shards tore themselves from the floor and threw themselves at the Huntsmaster. Thorne shot up toward the ceiling to escape.
From his space within the field of spikes, Eisel put away both of his weapons and clapped his hands together. The world flashed white and then was overtaken by a solid wall of colour. It split down the middle as Lillia peeled herself off the floor.
Every colour shattered in front of Lillia. She hadn’t closed her eyes, but she felt as if she had suddenly woken up in the stained-glass room she’d fought in before.
Eisel stood at the center of the stained-glass court. Havoc was by the door, Thorne in the air, Nennia on the wall, and Lillia alone on the glittering floor between them.
Time ticked slower. Seconds dragged and stretched themselves as Eisel rolled up the sleeves of his royal gown.
“How mature of you, Lillia. We get into one little fight and now you’re siding with a scout troupe of bugs. I could have sworn you hated them.”
Nennia was the fastest in the dragging time, but even she was slower than Eisel. She leapt through the air toward him, but he didn’t seem to be in a hurry to get out of the way.
“Fine. You want to make me an enemy? Allow me to remind you who I am.”
Eisel snapped his fingers, and something in the core of Lillia’s spine went cold. Whatever persistent warmth of hope had been there flickered out. Eisel laughed.
[The shadows darken. Death stays with those who die.]
“What?” Lillia managed. Her mouth was slow, but the words came out clearly.
“Now let’s get rid of these other distractions.”
Eisel pointed toward Havoc and one of the glass walls behind him shattered inward, breaking into a hundred shards of colour that all launched toward Havoc.
Time snapped back into sync with itself. Nennia crashed into Eisel; the glass careened toward Havoc.
No. No.
She couldn’t lose Havoc.
Not to someone like Eisel.
Not another parent. Not again. Not when she could do something about it.
“Havoc! Go where I tell you!”
Lillia pointed toward the hobgoblin as she began to stumble in his direction. One moment she was moving towards him, the next, she’d blinked into his place.
The cascading light of the glass flying towards her was beautiful in its own deadly way. She closed her eyes.
“Kid! N—”
“NO!” Eisel screamed. The glass shattered into a million pieces of powder in the breath before they impaled Lillia. The motes of dust and light washed over her. It stung her skin, but nothing more.
“He needs me alive!” Lillia said. “He can’t use me if I’m dead. I’ll cover you.”
That was a bluff. She needed more than a few seconds to activate that part of Run the Court again, but Eisel didn’t know that.
Lillia took a beat to steady herself before nodding to Havoc. If she wore the chitin battlegown, the gambit wouldn’t work. He knew how that dress worked. She needed to throw herself in front of Eisel without her backup.
She just needed to hope she could swap to her backup in time if everyone was doing their job too well.
Nennia pinned Eisel to the ground. Each of her sharpened legs acted as a spear he needed to twist between or bat aside to avoid being impaled. She lifted herself off him for a moment, and Eisel tried to roll to the side.
An arrow careened from the air to the right, breaking out into thick vines that lashed themselves around Eisel as he tried to move. He was pinned in place as Nennia smashed down on top of him, her legs digging into his shoulders and stomach. They didn’t pierce his clothes.
Nennia hesitated. She’d expected blood.
Eisel swore, less like he was in pain and more like he was frustrated about getting touched at all.
Glass shattered on the walls to either side of Nennia, and she was forced to leap back from Eisel. As soon as she was in the air, he tore through Thorne’s vines and kicked upward. The floor shot up to meet Nennia in the air, transforming into a spiked pillar with dangerous shards pointing in all directions. It caught up and stabbed her. Glass tore through her stomach and black blood poured down the lines between coloured panels.
Nennia cackled, but her voice caught on something wet as she did.
“Nennia! You are my champion!” Lillia called out as she ran toward the glass spikes on the ground. Rose-gold glitter covered the spider queen and danced over her shining black chitin as Eisel wheeled to try to turn his attention to Havoc again.
Lillia snapped an Ambusher feather, changing into her feathered boots. She leapt toward the spiked tower, kicking again to careen toward it even faster.
Eisel growled in frustration as the tower shattered apart in front of her.
So this was the deadly dance she’d entered. Lillia literally throwing her body in harm’s way to keep Eisel from killing everyone who’d sought to help her. Whether it was because they thought it was fun, or because they cared about her.
Lillia tumbled through the glass dust, and Nennia crashed down over her. The spider queen’s massive frame caged Lillia in for one breath before thin streams of black blood poured over her as Nennia’s wounds sealed themselves. Lillia rolled out from under the spider queen before her majesty charged at Eisel.
Glass shattered as Eisel flashed away from Nennia, stepping to another part of the room.
The forge that Havoc had made flared to life as Lillia scrambled to her feet. She called out.
“Light it up, Havoc!”
She couldn’t see where the hobgoblin was, but he answered her call. The flame within the forge grew bright and then spilled out the front of it. Lillia charged across the room to the fire and then tore the burnmite cloths as she leapt in front of the surging flame.
The blaze coiled around Lillia, licking the hem of her dress and spiralling into every thread of the fabric. The surrounding air hissed as she stole the forge’s fire.
Nearby, Eisel knocked three of Thorne’s arrows out of the air with impossible precision, each one disappearing from its path with a simple flash of his glass blade. In the brief moment he wasn’t blocking Nennia, she stabbed forward twice with her legs. Both of them caught on Eisel’s robes, but didn’t pierce. He grabbed one of them.
“You overestimate yourself, spider.”
“You and I are the same, pet.”
“Oh. Not anymore,” Eisel tore her leg inward, and something split within it; more black blood poured out of the chitin.
The smile that Nennia had been wearing all fight vanished as she stumbled forward. Eisel pulled back his blade.
“This is my court! And you will go where I tell you!”
Lillia cracked chitterpede chitin in her hand. She didn’t know which would happen first as she disappeared in a flash of iridescent light and powder.
Eisel’s blade tore through the chitterpede chitin, but stopped just before Lillia’s chest as he forced himself to pull the strike aside. Scales flew around Lillia as she stumbled into Nennia’s place. The Usurper’s Cloak boiled hot at her throat.
As Lillia fell backward from Eisel’s attack, he snatched her free wrist. Lillia caught his glare. His eyes were a wild, electric purple.
None of the stained glass outside had shown this truth.
“You! Stop being so difficult and fucking sit!”
The clasp of the Usurper Lord’s Cloak snapped tight around Lillia’s neck as the words crashed into her soul. The rose-gold line that marked Lillia’s territory flickered and shrunk as Eisel threw her backward. The clasp tightened further around her neck, and the force of Eisel’s command slammed Lillia to the floor. She clawed at the glass as she gasped for breath, her nails grinding against the grout between panels.
[Lillia bows to Eis—]
No!
No, no, no. That was what she did. It was supposed to be her authority. He’d stolen it.
Lillia fumbled at the clasp on her throat, but it wasn’t truly what was keeping her down. She could feel something further back in her head. Something that told her this would be easier.
She could just agree, and then he would let everyone go. She could simply join him, and it would be comfortable. It would all be over eventually. One day, when she had stayed quiet for long enough, been polite for long enough, and accepted the derision for long enough, she would become queen. On some mysterious day on the far horizon, Lillia would be rewarded for sitting back like a polite little girl who knew her place.
Lillia dropped Hooke as she struggled to keep herself from lying down and giving up.
[Lillia bows—]
Lillia called a Guard Captain’s Sabre to her hand. She heard glass shatter on the other side of the room.
She had to do something. She couldn’t sit by again. She hadn’t gotten everyone to stand up for her so she could throw it all away.
Her knees wanted the floor. Her throat wanted the collar. Some trained, obedient part of her wanted to make this easier, but…
She was a princess. It was her right to rule.
Lillia had already bowed one too many times in this dungeon.
Havoc flew across the room as Lillia climbed to her feet, inch by inch. The collar of the clasp loosened around her throat as she pushed through Eisel’s influence and righted herself.
Eisel skewered Nennia as Lillia tore cloth in her hand. The spider queen stumbled back, but didn’t fall.
[Lillia—]
“Eisel!” Lillia called.
Fire ran up Lillia’s sleeve and into her fingertips as she finished the hand signals.
“Burn.”
[Lillia used Backdraft.]
A surging torrent of flames erupted from Lillia’s hand, shooting across the battlefield. Empowered by the usurper’s cloak, it hit Eisel as if it were a tide of water, throwing him through the air and setting his royal finery ablaze. He slammed into one knight along the far wall, crashing through the decapitated suit of armour and crumpling on the floor.
Thorne flew over and gave Nennia a health potion. The two of them said something to one another. Lillia couldn’t hear it over her heartbeat pounding in her ears.
Eisel didn’t move. Lillia refused to lower her hand.
One act of defiance couldn’t be enough. And she’d learned her lesson about celebrating too early. Lillia grabbed Hooke off the ground and ran toward Eisel. They had their plan, but if she could finish it now—
Glass shattered somewhere between worlds, and Eisel was gone.
Then his voice was in her ear. “Come here, Lillia. Let’s talk.”
The world flashed white.