Chapter 6: The Flaming Woman

Knave Angela – The Altar of Souls, The Princedoms of Zeutch

My demand hung in the air as I advanced on Lady Delilah, emotions swirling wildly through me. I had so many questions about all the strange things that had happened since my Quest’s start. And she would give me answers. My hand fell to the hilt of my sword. I didn’t care that she was a senior Knight Deute. I didn’t care that she made my heart race with lust’s desires.

I would get my answers, or the Gods would witness my anger.

“I am sure you have many,” Lady Delilah purred, her stance shifting, the chainmail loin cloth swung between her thighs. She wore armor similar to mine, a low-cut half-breastplate showing off her lush mounds, pauldrons shiny on her shoulders, her chainmail loin cloth hanging from her wide sword belt, knee-high boots with greaves strapped over the shins, and vambraces covering her forearms.

Sophia stood beside me, trembling in her white robes. Thrak edged to my right, Minx to my left, moving in slow circles to surround her. Wood clunked behind me, Aurora pulling out her totems while Faoril’s robes rustled as she reached for her vials of cum, ready to perform her magic.

If Lady Delilah was at all disturbed by the menacing looks the hulking orc gave or the sharp daggers in Minx’s hands, she showed only relaxed confidence. Chaun stepped up to my left, his head cocking.

“That’s the woman who hired me,” he said, voice coached low.

“Nudged you on the path,” Lady Delilah corrected, giving Chaun a slow smile. Then she inclined her head. “You gave me a wondrous gift that night.”

“Why did you hire Chaun?” I demanded as I ripped the garnet pendant from my pouch. “Why did you give me this amulet? And why did I find its twin on the warlock Fireeyes after he tried to kill me? Are you the elf who enlisted Minx to steal the sword? Were you the elf we saw in the Deorc forest? How is that even possible? Who are you really?”

“I scarce no where to begin,” she answered, her hands sweeping her fiery hair off her pauldrons and behind her back.

“Are you the Flaming Woman?” Sophia asked.

“Flaming woman...” Her head tilted, an amused smile forming on her lips. “Is that how the Lesbius Oracle described me? Usually, the prophecies give me a different title. But that is apropos, I suppose.”

“Other prophecies?” I furrowed my brow. “What are you talking about?”

“Why, the prophecies about the return of the High King’s heir. The Hero of Lilies who will reforge his empire and take up his sword.”

“Hero of Lilies?” I glanced at Faoril.

The mage blinked her eyes then shook her head. “The study of prophecies is not something pursued at the Collegiate Towers. Most do not delve into such esoteric fields.”

“It is a savior prophecy,” Thrak grunted. “Or so I heard. Spoken at the time the High King died. The Hero who would return and save the world, a second coming of the High King Peter. I heard a lecture on it briefly at my time at Allenoth. But, I must confess, I made a study of philosophy not prophecy.”

“Not many do,” Lady Delilah smiled. “But I have. I have spent a thousand years studying every prophecy given by every oracle.”

I blinked. “What? You can’t be that old.”

“Not even elves live that long,” Xera said. “If you are truly of my race and found a way to appear human.”

“I am not an elf. Nor am I human.” Lady Delilah licked her lips. “I am unique. There are none living who are like me. I have spent the centuries studying the prophecies, waiting for the Hero of Lilies, the descendant of the High King through his only surviving daughter, Lily.”

“And?” I frowned. “I am not the only descendant. Why not my mother? My cousins? It’s been a thousand years. There must be scores of his descendants.”

“But none are the Hero of Lilies. None were given an impossible task. None found the companions and the sword. ‘And thus did the Hero of Lilies, a Knight of Flames, venture forth to quest for the impossible, ‘ spoke the Oracle of the Sands seven-hundred-and-three years ago.

“‘In the Temple of Purity, anointed by virginity, was the Hero of Lilies charged with the impossible. A task no man had completed. But the Hero of Lilies would slay fire, defeat betrayal, and wield the Broken Blade once more, ‘ spoke the Oracle of Whispers five-hundred-and-thirty-three years ago.

“‘For Duty shall the Hero of Lilies set out, death’s maw waiting at journey’s end. Seek boon companions to avoid betrayal’s trap, oh Hero of Lilies. The Whore untouched by Men. The Hunter of Love Unseen. The Mage of Grief and Guilt. The Barbarian who Mourns Love’s Lost,. The Bard with a Thousand Faces. The Thief who Steals Her Love. The Shaman Cursed to Walk. The Guide Who has Seeded the Path, ‘ spoke the Serpent Oracle nine-hundred-and-thirty-three years ago.”

“Whore?” muttered Sophia.

“You haven’t answered my questions,” I said, growing anger at the nonsense she spouted. Old prophecies about me? “Why are you interested in this? Why have you involved yourself with me? Why did you give Fireeyes a matching amulet?” My anger boiled over. “He tried to kill us! Why help find my companions, and then send a warlock to attack me over and over. To use magic to stop me?”

Lady Delilah’s mouth twisted with distaste. “I gave that amulet to King Edward. Not Fireeyes!” Her fingers flexed. “The King lied to me. He feigned interest in your quest. I have long advised him before he became King, as I advised his father. When he learned of your Quest to kill the dragon, he wanted to support you, or so he claimed. He wanted to give aid. He asked for a way to track you. I supplied the amulets. I have a third.” She reached into a pouch and pulled out a matching pendant. “It is how I have monitored you on your quest.”

“King Edward?” I blinked. “Why would he want you dead?”

“He was crowned right before your quest,” Lady Delilah answered. “You know the custom of your kingdom.”

“He visited the Sekar Oracle,” Sophia said.

“And got a prophecy,” I groaned. “About me?”

“Apparently. He deduced who you were from it. The closer time has come to your appearance, the more specific the prophecies have become. It was what allowed me to find all your companions years ago. ‘The Bard of a Thousand Faces, Seducer of Princesses and Shame of Princes. Disgraced. Hunted. Seek him in low places, singing bawdy tales, ‘ spoke the Oracle of Sands one-hundred-and-seven years ago.” Lady Delilah’s eyes flicked to Chaun. “And when you cuckolded Prince Gruber and fled his court in disgrace, I knew I had found you.”

“But why?” I demanded. “Why do you care? Why are you invested in this? Why have you spent a thousand years waiting for me?” I couldn’t believe it. A hero? “I am just a disgraced knight. I’m going to kill a dragon and spend the rest of my life as a fugitive.”

“Or as the Queen. The High King’s heir restored to her rightful place of power, ruling her ancestors kingdom as she wields his sword.” Lady Delilah’s eyes grew wide, her voice breathy.

My stomach squirmed. I did not want that. I just wanted to protect people.

“That did not answer her question,” Thrak rumbled.

“Is it because you’re in the prophecies?” Sophia asked. “The Guide? The Flaming Woman who will change Angela’s destiny?”

“Because I am Queen Aria of Hamilten,” she answered.

“What?” I blinked.

“Impossible,” Faoril said. “Queen Aria has been dead for a...”

“Thousand years?” A smile crossed Lady Delilah’s lips.

“Wait, you’re claiming to be the High King’s wife?” Sophia demanded. “That you’re Angela’s ancestor, too.”

“No, no, that was Rose, his second wife,” Lady Delilah said. “She bore him all his children. But I was his first. I was with him from nearly the beginning. I witnessed him forge his empire. And I watched as that bitch Slata destroyed it.” True anger crossed her face, her cheeks growing as ruddy as her hair. “His sons killed by mishaps. His own body afflicted with a wasting illness. The curse placed upon his only daughter Lily so she and all her descendants would only bear girls. All the work of Slata out of her jealousy for Pater’s indiscretions. She persecutes all the Holy Father’s bastards, including my Peter.

“But I persevered. I swore to my husband as he died I would find the Hero of Lilies and witness his kingdom restored. That I would walk the centuries, searching for her, waiting for the signs to be right, and then ensuring she regained what was stolen from her ancestor.”

Lady Delilah’s eyes fixed on me, the green depths burning with a fiery fervor. “For you, Angela. I have waited for you. I can see it in your eyes. You have Rose’s face and his nose. You are their descendant. You have found his sword. You overcome all the obstacles I placed in your path when I hid the blade.”

“You hid the blade?” I demanded. “You broke it apart and scattered it across the world? This sounds crazy. The High King’s wives are long dead. They’re moldering in the ground. You can’t have lived this long.”

“A demigoddess could,” Faoril said. “She claims she is unique. She can change her appearance.”

“But the High King’s wife? That she’s really a queen?”

“Chaun can prove it. He has seen my husband’s appearance in my thoughts.” Her eyes softened again. “He took my husband’s visage the night we met in Lor-Khev.”

“I did,” Chaun said, nodding his head. “I can see her husband’s form in her thoughts.”

“Become him.” There was such longing in Lady Delilah’s voice, her eyes no longer burning but tremulous. “Let me gaze upon him again.”

Chaun glanced at me. I nodded.

The changeling’s form blurred. His shoulders swelled, his chest growing thicker, stronger. His midnight-black skin became paler, lighter, like my skin. He became a man of power. A man with a regal bearing. A man who knew his strengths because they had been tested time and time again.

“The High King,” Faoril said, a touch of awe in her voice. “He looks like the statues I have seen of him.”

“They have one of him at Allenoth,” Thrak nodded.

“And in Shesax, Angela,” Sophia said, her voice croaking. “In the Water Square. He stands at the center of the fountain. That man.”

“My Lord and Husband,” Lady Delilah breathed. Her hands reached out, fingers outstretched for a moment. Then she yanked them back, tears glistening in her eyes. “Thank you for letting me see him again.”

“You’re welcome,” Chaun said, his voice deeper, majestic. Then he rippled, growing slimmer, taller, more effeminate as he returned to his natural appearance.

“This is madness,” I said, staring at Lady Delilah. Queen Aria. “You’ve been following me? You’ve been watching the quest, nudging my companions to join me? Why not just approach me? Why not help me?”

“I couldn’t interfere directly,” she said. “Though I came close when the erinyes became involved. You had to be strong enough to overcome all the trials on your own. Without my interference. And you did. All of them. You recovered my husband’s sword.” Her head whipped around, staring at the Altar of Souls. “It awaits you. Reforge it. Take up your destiny.”

“To slay the dragon?”

“That is just the start,” breathed Delilah. “The eight of us standing here, Angela, will aid you. The High Kingdom of Hamilten will be reforged. You shall bring peace to the world. United under one Queen.”

I arched an eyebrow. “It’s already fairly peaceful. The Knight Orders see to that. Why do you need me?”

“You will understand,” Delilah breathed. “When you hold the sword. You will understand the power it contains. The responsibility that it grants you. Why that blade tamed me.”

“What are you?” Minx asked. “Are you really Adel? Are you the elf I met in Raratha?”

Lady Delilah’s flesh rippled the same way Chaun’s did. She grew taller and slimmer, pointed ears peaking through her hair, a greenish cast blossoming across her skin. Her face became delicate. Still Lady Delilah’s face, but unmistakably an elf. A cock pushed past her chainmail, dangling long and hard before her.

“Oh, my,” Sophia said.

“That’s her,” Minx grinned. “I sucked that cock. She can control it, Xera. Have it whenever she wants.”

“Lucky for her,” Xera said. “You are one of Matar’s children? Or Henta’s?”

“Matar,” Lady Delilah answered. “Her daughter. I was wild. And then Peter tamed me. He took me as his wife. And then we found Rose, and we loved her together.” Her girl-dick twitched. She blurred, shifting back into a human appearance, but her cock didn’t vanish. “Have I answered your questions to your satisfaction, Angela? Do you believe I am your enemy? I have only ever wanted you to succeed. I was so wroth with King Edward when I discovered his duplicity. He has betrayed you, sent assassins to kill you. He ensured the knights sent to hunt you were joined by Slata’s priestesses. Because he knows that you will depose him.”

“I won’t,” I said, trembling. “I am just slaying the dragon.”

“Stubborn.” The smile grew. “Just like your ancestor.” Lady Delilah pointed at the Altar of Souls. “There it is. Reforge the blade. Then let us ride to Dominari’s cave and discover what your true destiny is.”

Then she stepped closer to me. I shivered. She was as beautiful now as she was when I first saw her a decade ago. Not surprising, she was immortal. She reached out, touched my hand. “If you have more questions, we can discuss them in a more intimate setting.” Her eyes flicked to Sophia. “Your concubine can join us, too. She is a part of your decision, Angela. Will you truly be her queen?”

My heart beat faster. My cheeks warmed. My eyes flicked down to her cock. “Very well. You have answered my questions. It’s insane.”

“Yeah,” Aurora squeaked. “So you knew I would marry Chaun before I ever did.”

“I did,” Lady Delilah purred, looking past me. “And I am so glad you have found such joy in it. I watched you grow up, witnessed how you suffered these last two years being unable to fly.”

“I can fly,” she said and then blurred into a song bird, her wings flapping, launching herself at Chaun. She landed on his shoulder and chirped.

“Wonderful,” Lady Delilah smiled. “It is one thing to study prophecy, but to see it unfold, to see you eight become closer and closer over the months, has been something amazing. Something I was honored to watch. And now...” She took my hands, squeezing them, smiling at me. “I am so thrilled to join you, too.”

“To face the dragon with us?”

“To face everything with you, my Queen,” Lady Delilah said, her voice so breathy. She knelt before me. “I am your humble servant. The oaths I swore to my husband, I transfer to you. I shall obey you, love you, serve you.”

I wanted so badly to believe her, but a tiny doubt nibbled at the back of my mind. Why would she give the amulet to King Edward at all? Her answer made sense. It was reasonable. Why would she doubt King Edward’s intentions? But ... she was the High King’s wife. Chaun proved that. And if she truly was a demigoddess, she must have power like the Minotaur. I needed all the help to defeat Dominari.

The memory of the dragon’s flames burned through my mind. The beast wiped out a hundred men in a heartbeat.

“Faoril, begin your preparations.”

Warlock Faoril

I had never drawn a magic circle with more care than this one. Not even when I summoned the Eldridge Horror during the Test on the Island. I scribed out the most complex of circles: the Starburst. A ten-pointed star. I used red chalk to draw it to contain immense heat.

I made it on the polished, stone slab upon which rested the Altar of Souls. My entire body trembled. There was such magic in the air. The entire hillside brimmed with energy. My heart beat faster and faster. It was time to cast the Ritual of Reclamation. I knew the theory. I understood how the energies had to be used. The materials were here, spread out on the altar. The hunk of raw adamantium, the five pieces of the High King’s sword, the bloody heart of the Minotaur.

After drawing the circle and the star, I made the arcane markings. I wrote the five elements names twice, fire in the points of the star facing north and south, water in the points facing east and west. I drew each one with precision, kneeling on the ground, ignoring the ache in my back as I worked while the party asked Lady Delilah more questions.

She insisted on being called Lady Delilah. “I have grown used to the name,” she had laughed when Aurora called her Queen Aria. “I haven’t used that name since I faked my death and broke apart the swords.”

It was hard to ignore their conversation as she spoke on the one-hundred-and-two prophecies she had collected about Angela and her destiny. How she pieced together the clues to find us. Minx, she claimed, was the hardest to find until her older sister was hung. Thrak was easy. The first orc to ever attend Allenoth University.

“I was so afraid she would die,” Lady Delilah laughed. “The basilisk hunted her and her hunters, and Angela and Sophia were blundering through the woods. I had to do something. Prophecies are not exact. In many ways, they are guides that you have to follow to reach the right future, but if you make a wrong turn ... So I became Adel and raced though the woods to lead her to you.”

“Fortunate,” Xera said. “That hunt had gone poorly for us.”

“But it allowed us to gain Xera’s help and find the Lesbius Oracle,” Sophia said.

“‘Seek instruction, oh Hero of Lilies, from the Oracle of the Forest, the Oracle devoted to the Divine Virgin, for guidance, but the price shall be steep, ‘“ quoted Lady Delilah. “So I knew where you were heading.”

I blocked them out. I couldn’t be distracted not right now. After drawing the elemental names, I added markings of warding to the outside edge. It had to be strong. Salamanders were powerful spirits to summon. They were the embodiment of fire dwelling in the Astral Realm. The Ideal of Fire.

The sun had passed its Zenith and was well on its way to setting when I made the final mark. Sweat fell off my forehead as I rose. I groaned, my back popping as I arched it. And then I studied the runes.

“Such precision,” Lady Delilah said.

I jumped, turning to find the woman behind me. She had let her cock vanish because it no longer tented her chainmail loin cloth. For a moment, I wondered what properties her cum had for powering my magics. I would have to get a sample from her later.

“It has to be precise,” I answered. “No mage gains the red robes who can’t make a precise circle. I will be unleashing energies and summoning powerful entities from the Astral Realm. If the geometries and markings are not drawn with enough mathematical precision, then they shall escape, and we would have a horde of salamanders rampaging.”

“It is such a pity you failed your test.” Lady Delilah shook her head. “I had assumed you would pass. Your teachers always spoke so highly of you.”

“I made a mistake,” I frowned, my cheeks warming. Embarrassment flooded through me. It was such a dumb mistake, too. “I didn’t preserve the lemures cum I had collected.”

“But you will not make a mistake today. I can see it in you. You are not a woman that repeats her follies.”

Her words banished my embarrassment. “Thank you.”

“Are we ready?” Angela asked.

“We are ready,” I told her. I pulled out three vials of Thrak’s cum and drank them down one after the other. I shivered, the energy reserves flooding through me.

I faced the circle. The altar gleamed silver in the setting sun. I took a deep breath and sent fire into the circle to power it. The chalk burst to life with a ruddy glow, painting crimson across the altar. The circle hummed. There were no disruptions in the harmonics. It was perfect.

I ripped open a portal to the Astral Realm and summoned the salamanders.

The others gasped behind me as they stared at the rip in the fabric of our reality, the realm of the Gods beyond. Fire poured through. Great tongues of red and orange danced through the rift. The air wavered and danced above. The polished stone around the altar grew a dull red as the heat poured out.

But it didn’t come past the circle.

“What is that?” Sophia gasped behind me.

Out of the rip came the salamanders. They were creatures made entirely of flame, similar to Aurora’s elementals. But these were no constructs bound together by a shaman’s will. These were Ideal Fire. Living flames. Their bodies were tongues of dancing yellows, reds, oranges, and whites. As they stepped out on all four, their bodies rippled and writhed. They had no fixed forms as their flames danced in various directions. They looked superficially like large lizards. But their legs were longer.

Four of them answered my summons, padding around the circle. Fiery tongues flicked out, brushing the edges. Their fiery tails swept back and forth, leaving plumes of black smoke rising up into the air. The choking vapors swirled and gusted, pressing against the boundary of the circle, forming a cylinder of boiling darkness rising higher and higher into the sky. Constrained, unable to escape the geometries of my boundaries.

One snarled and slammed into the barrier. I felt the impact through my senses, the geometries wavering for a moment. I poured more energy into the circle, strengthening it while I directed my will at the inhabitants. Life magic surged into the circle.

The salamanders were summoned for a purpose. And they would obey my will.

I thrust my hands out before me, sweat breaking out across my face as the salamanders snarled and hissed. They all threw themselves into the magic circle. Energy rippled from their impacts, waves of red sweeping across the cylinder trapping them. They fixed burning eyes on me, anger swarming them. The stones glowed hotter and hotter at their feet, the glare hurting my eyes.

I ignored it as I sent earth magic now into the circle. The barrier restricted energy from passing back and forth. But I drew the barrier. I powered it. So I could slip my magic through the circle, touching the arcane runes I marked, and sending the power of the earth into the sword pieces, the hunk of adamantium, and the Minotaur’s heart.

“Heat,” I said. “I need your heat. Your energy. You are the Fires of Krab. You are the Flames of Creation. Pour your power into the blade. Let what was broken be made whole!”

The words were unnecessary, but they focused my thoughts. My body trembled as the Life, Earth, and Fire magic poured out of me. My energy reserves dwindled as I burned through Thrak’s cum. I furrowed my brows, focusing on the salamanders and nothing else.

“Obey, Flames of Creation.”

They hissed at me and then turned. They pressed against the Altar of Souls. Heat poured into the silver. It drank their energy with a great thirst. But it didn’t glow. However hot they made it, didn’t affect its silvery surface.