Retribution

Anu rode through the countryside, happily taking a survey of the conquered lands. After leaving her meeting with Arawn, she’d decided it was best to return to the capital. He had been nervous, wary of her. He was starting to understand that there was no way out for him. The thought of wrapping her hands around his neck and squeezing until the light left his eyes sent a chill through her. It would be a victory she would slowly savor when the Tara River vanished and she had him under her.
She chuckled at the thought of getting rid of the little blonde he’d been screwing most recently with a wave of her hand. Maybe, she’d kill her first and make Arawn watch as punishment for making her wait centuries just to reach this inevitable ending.
She turned the idea over in her mind. She was imagining Arawn’s expression of horror as the blonde woman breathed her last breath when she felt a disturbance in the air.
The air felt hotter. The air was charged with power that wasn’t hers or the power of fear. She felt a deep, violent shift in the power she gained from the citizens of Conna as if a large group stopped believing or died all at once.
She thought perhaps some natural disaster had happened. The continent was so unpredictable sometimes, but as she felt more of her power start to shift, she thought differently. The sky was clear. She would have seen smoke or something out of her window.
Immediately, she thought of Arawn. It would be like him to lure her to the river to speak, then launch a sneak attack. He had a few advantages she didn’t in terms of mobility. She leaned towards the window and set her jaw. The glow of the Tara River remained as bright as ever in the distance.
There was another sharp change in the air, more violent than the one before and her heart lurched as she felt it filling the air.
Another deity?
She grit her teeth.
She leaned out of the window and looked towards the capital. Using her power, she sent her sights further until she felt as though she was hovering over the capital.
A large man bearing a shield on his back with long hair and brown eyes stood among the crowd, grimacing as blood gushed down the palace steps. Anu’s banged on the side of the carriage.
“Full speed back to the capital!”
She didn’t recognize the figure. There was so much power swirling around her that she could barely make out her form, but she understood her intentions.
She was slaughtering people in her capital.
“For my father!”
Anu shuddered at the voice that shrieked through the air as she was thrown back into her body from the sheer force of the other deity’s power. Her stomach lurched. She felt sick and truly afraid down to her bones.
Where had such a powerful being come from? Why were they so angry?
She shook it off. A show of strength didn’t mean they were all-powerful. Slaughtering her knights was, admittedly, as easy as killing flies. She was more powerful than Arawn and he’d been the only one to ever stand against her with any success.
This deity was powerful, but she couldn’t be that powerful. She couldn’t still have the power to fight Anu after such an outburst. She would need time to recuperate and Anu wouldn’t let her have it.
The carriage rattled on the road, hurrying towards the capital as smoke began to lift into the air. She heard the clunking of armored men and the desperate cries of her citizens of fear, but it was not fear she had inspired.
It grew and spilled out through the city like a cloud of smoke, changing every drop of fear into something else. As the carriage entered the capital, she smelled blood and burning flesh. The carriage stopped in the courtyard in the center of the capital. Anu got out of the carriage and glared up at the sight that had so many cowering in fear, murmuring fearful, empty prayers for salvation. Though they knew better than to ask Anu for salvation.
“Y-Your Majesty, the king…”
His body was in pieces filling the tiers of the capital’s largest fountain, turning the waters bloody. Stuck in the top tier was a spear bearing the man’s head. Blood slid down the pole from his eyes and mouth that was still twisted in a fearful shriek. It was not a noble expression, let alone a kingly one. At least the duke of Gunning had died with dignity.
Dignity was too much to ask a man who needed sex as often as he did and clung to his comforts and power without any intention to fight for it.
“What happened?” She asked.
A knight that was leaning on his spear hobbled over, “A woman came with a man. She looked young…She looked a little bit like the heir of Gunning.”
Anu glared at the man, “One little girl couldn’t have done all this.”
Unless, Anu grit her teeth and turned to survey the damage. It’s impossible.
The girl couldn’t have gone far after doing so much damage. The duchess had confessed that she suspected her husband was a heretic. When questioned, he simply said that a Daran would never bow to a tyrant.
She remembered his cold expression.
Or a false prophet.
She’d beheaded him for the offense and sent his head back to the duchy with the Herald.
It had been an irritating mishap that his daughter had escaped, but after hearing that she had jumped into the Tara River, she’d expected it all to be over.
She had never imagined the girl had survived.
“Call an assembly and get the remaining knights ready to march after her.”
She climbed up the steps of the castle and turned as people were forced from their homes to listen to her. They looked afraid, but that fear wasn’t directed at her, but at the woman who had torn through her capital city, killed the king, and seemingly vanished.
“Let it be known, I will tell you the truth of the Tara River,” she said evenly. “It was created to defend the people of Conna, the people of this continent from barbarians and heretics like the woman who came and plundered my city. The time has come that we no longer rely on it to defend us as it is clear that heretics are festering here.”
She turned to the captain, “We leave within the hour after that girl. Her head will decorate the temple!”
A weak rallying cry came from the soldiers. She had every able-bodied man shoved into armor and marched towards the path leading out of the capital. She led them on horseback following the path the scouts said the girl had escaped on.

Sirona felt the thrumming of the earth beneath them as Druid turned back.
“The queen.”
Sirona turned, “Good.”
She had been a bit upset that Blodeu hadn’t been in the castle when she’d found the king alone and dragged him out to the market. She felt bad about the children who had seen her behead the man, but it was passing mercy. Arawn said once that she had to give the people something else to fear until she could find a way to make them live on their own. It was fine, for now, that it was her.
Sirona drew her sword as she felt a great force coming toward her. She sent out a burst of energy as soon as she saw Blodeu. Men screamed in agony before vanishing.
Blodeu tumbled to the ground as her horse vanished startling Sirona. Blodeu’s eyes flashed and she saw the aura around Blodeu.
It was similar to Arawn’s. Her heart lurched.
“What?”
Blodeu screeched, coming at her with a vicious screech and shoving Sirona back. Sirona dug in her heels and pushed her off, barely dodging the blade of light that Blodeu aimed at her. She was fast, faster than Fedelm had been, and a bit faster than Arawn, but she didn’t have the same amount of skill as either of them.
Her blows were wild and furious, hacking at the air as if it would help her strike Sirona.
“Just die!” Blodeu growled.
The air flickered and threw Sirona back and through the brilliant glow of the Tara River. Her sword went flying as Blodeu turned towards her. She watched the glow of the river vanish as if it had never been, revealing a mostly dry creek bed separating the land of Conna from the northern area of Berth.
Behind her, she heard the thundering of hooves and the clanking of armor.
Sirona felt the air shifting as Blodeu prepared to streak towards her. She was coming too fast for her to block or move. Then, she saw Druid appear between them. His body jerked as Blodeu’s blade pierced his chest.
“Druid!”