Truth

  ( Sunshine )

  All of the dark thoughts Sunshine had endured over the years did little to prepare her for what awaited in Tuberly. Despite her haste, she arrived to find the village in the grisliest of states.

  Residents had been hauled from their homes and butchered, leaving the streets slick with human chum. Innocents disgraced. Defiled. Divided. Displayed.

  Limp human peelings hung like gruesome tapestries. Flayed mangles lay heaped beneath the evicted eyes of their own vacant hides. Some amongst the red-weeping mountains still twitched and gurgled. Most of the meat was an indistinguishable tangle, yet one swaying arm in particular caught Sunshine's attention. Its few remaining fleshless fingers reached for the stolen skin above, as if seeking to crawl back inside.

  Vast networks of exhumed viscera connected vegetable cottages and tree trunks, like the wet web of an offal-weaving arachnid, still pulsing and squelching with unwanted life.

  Sticky, scarlet skulls were arranged in rows. Plucked features lay before them. Mismatched combinations of eyes, lips, noses and ears formed faces that never were.

  Only the choicest cuts had been etched with ruinous symbols, and now lay ready to form ritualistic array. Such arrangements could not have been constructed quickly. Neither were they the result of a chaotic flood. No. It was all too deliberate. Too controlled.

  But all was not yet lost. At the centre of the village, a handful of survivors remained bound and gagged beside a ring of rune-carved cleavings.

  Within the cadaverous circle, an individual howled. Whilst Sunshine couldn't recall his name, she at least recognised the hair-clad man as the village elder. He'd been left stranded within a slopping puddle of fetal fluid, more a slow seepage than a full-blown eruption.

  Toothless maws bawled and wounded hands tugged at the mane of grey threads. The mutation was unlike Cutiehorn's. Its gradual, purposeless pace was far crueller. Tiny, misshapen grips twisted the elder's structure back and forth, slowly grinding breaks and fractures.

  Even that brief glance was a mistake. Madness crawled through Sunshine's sockets to pull her psyche in impossible directions, like an execution victim somehow tied to a hundred bolting horses.

  Her wings faltered. Eyelids clenched to a close and legs braced for an emergency landing. Sandals skidded and socks soaked in slippery slurry. Even the lower half of her robe gained grim weight as spillage splattered up.

  "Just don't look at it." Sunshine cautiously pried open her eyes and focused on the surrounding sludge. As much as the sights sickened her, they were at least conceivable.

  She raced through blood-stained streets, following the sounds of squealing, snapping and spurting until she stumbled into the village centre. Eyelids clamped shut once more as she jumped in between the subterranean slime and the bound victims, then tugged faefire free of her robe.

  "Brace yourselves!" She stood ready to shield the survivors from the heat, but there was nothing she could do for the elder now. Nothing but mercy.

  She punched a thumb down upon the vial's cap and swung.

  An instant later, brightness illuminated veiled vision. She raised her arms before her face until the heat died down. Then, in self-inflicted darkness, she listened. Spitting. Sputtering. Bubbling. Choking...

  Sunshine gritted her teeth and considered her second vial. Her last vial. She couldn't afford to fling it blindly. The longer she remained ignorant of what wheezed before her, the greater danger. With no other option, she dared to peek.

  To her relief, the faefire had done away with the worst of the ichor. The few abyssal babes that remained were melting away, too weak to test her lucidity further. Yet the banished discharge had managed one final act before the vial had landed. It'd finally claimed the elder in full.

  Fuzziness burst from his crisp, burned flesh. A mammoth mane slathered in repellent grease, smothering all traces of fluttering fuchsia. At the same time, his skeleton extended with brutal, cracking jerks. Multitudinous limbs tore free, protruding from the crunching contortion at every possible angle.

  Fuck.

  Sunshine hastily turned and yanked ropes apart to release the most capable. "Find something to cut the rest!"

  Unable to spare a single second longer, she returned her attention to the colossal, caterpillar-like leviathan. Sunken, sorrowful pits peered down at her. Misery dribbled from a charred mouth, as if the slightest semblance of sanity remained to lament the miscreation it'd become.

  "I'll buy you time!" she shouted. "Leave no one behind!"

  Through devastated streets they raced. With one eye on the survivors, Sunshine swooped through torn tuber terraces, swerved around trophy-strewn trees and soared over piles of dead. Behind her, rows upon rows of omni-directional appendages clawed at every scalable surface. Such unnatural propulsion resulted in constant, full-bodied rotation. A dizzying, drill-like surge of ever-changing orientation.

  If she were to slay the whirling worm, she needed to bypass its extinguishing coat and strike the vulnerable body beneath. The spinning, sobbing visage presented one such opportunity, but scoring a direct hit would be no easy task. She needed to slow the beast's rabid rolling, or better yet, immobilise it entirely.

  Why are you even trying? You're going to fail.

  "I won't." With the last of the prisoners finally clear of the village, Sunshine surveyed an ancient oak. Its spiralling trunk was thicker than any carriage, but hollowed with mossy decay.

  You're weak.

  "I'm strong!" A swing of her mace blew crumbling chunks from its gaping girth. Lashing wings launched her high. There, just below the curly crown, she waited, watching as the pursuer coiled up and up.

  Unstable wood groaned. Tilted. Snapped. The oaken king came crashing down, pinning the predator amongst crushed foliage and starchy rubble.

  You're pathetic.

  "I."

  Sunshine slammed down.

  "Am."

  She cracked her second vial.

  "Firstborn!"

  She flung.

  Enchanted glass span into the grieving mouth. Purging fire flashed through unshielded innards. A chain reaction of violent violet, blasting masses of withering hair into the air like flickering confetti.

  You... You did it? ...You actually did it?

  She watched the cooked mass wilt away, trying to restrain the rush of pride. A part of her wanted to roar in triumph. To jump around and flail her fists. Yet as tremendous the vindication, she couldn't bring herself to cheer amongst the ravaged. At least, not until she tracked down the survivors and made sure they were all safe.

  We've finally done something right! We... I... I've finally proven myself!

  Clunk. Clunk. Clunk.

  Morbid metal impacts sounded from behind, like a hammer burying coffin nails.

  Sunshine turned to see a black swarm on approach. Within the droning song, a hulking giant, eight foot tall and abnormally broad, applauded. Each heavy, thudding step caused locked chains to rattle. A hundred thick stakes held the shackles in place, piercing rust-bloomed plates, binding iron to bone. Half-armour, half-torture. A pincushion prison.

  A plethora of parasites spilled from overflowing crevices with every moment. Writhing worms. Scattering mites. Bloated leeches. If not for the eye leering from the lone peephole of the bulbous helm, and the opening beneath from which a maggot-munched mouth smirked, Sunshine might've thought the creaking cage home to naught but critters.

  Resting upon his shoulder was an oversized hammer. Its cruor-caked head more a clustered maze of crooked needles than a blunt object. A weapon that prioritised mutilation over fatality. It was distracting enough that Sunshine might've missed the black cane at his other side if it didn't thrum with profane magic.

  Human? Fairy? No... Mutant. One capable of composure.

  "We meet at last, Li'le Fledglin'." His accent was unapologetically rural, more so than even the most remote of Titan's villages. It rumbled from his lowered throat, yet left his lips a mere whisper.

  Sunshine subtly tensed, readying muscles like pressed springs. "And who the fuck are you?"

  Infested lips curled. Pale, segmented squirmers squeezed through crooked teeth. "Many are mine titles, Li'le Fledglin'. From butcher t' prisoner, from fool t' lord. Round 'ere, some think me a prophet, others a scholar. Thou, 'owever, on this most glorious o' days, may think me an emissary."

  This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

  "What are you talking about? You're responsible for this atrocity, right?" Sunshine cast her gaze around. With lessened adrenaline, the sights wounded her far more deeply. "Why? Why would you commit such barbarity?"

  She dug in her heels as the man shrugged the great bundle of spikes from his shoulder, letting it plant upon the gore-drenched ground. Now unarmed aside from the suspicious cane, he opened his stance in welcome.

  "T' bridge the divide, Li'le Fledglin'. T' gain audience with thee. A meetin' one thousan' years in the makin', t' deliver 'er message. That thou art 'er chosen."

  "You think I want anything to do with you? With any of this? You're mistaken. No, psychotic!"

  "It is not I whom thou must 'eed, Li'le Fledglin'. 'Ast thou not 'eard 'er call? 'Ast thou not felt 'er reach? The Mother o' Magic calls t' thee."

  Air reverberated through Sunshine's shuddering throat. Each time she'd gazed upon ichor, she'd felt lunacy lap at her consciousness. Now that invasive, perverting will had a name.

  The Mother of Magic?

  "She is eager t' embrace thee, Li'le Fledglin'. All thou needst do is accept 'er blessin', an' the world shall tremble. Even Queens will cower before thy wrath. Thou art t' be a goddess o' destruction. Unrivalled. Unstoppable. That is thy destiny."

  With each offensive claim, Sunshine's face creased with greater and greater fury, yet she fought to maintain control, to stop her growls from breaking into screams. "I am no mindless destroyer. I am a defender. A protector of my family, of my Queen, of her lands and her people. I am firstborn, and you attacked my sisters... my friends!" Knuckles whitened around Truth. Feathers flared and wings spread. "For that, I sentence you to death!" She made no attempt to hide her intent, channelling all of her strength into a single swing.

  Not even Splishsplash dares contest my full force!

  Air shrieked. The mace came down.

  Clang!

  Lethality rang from the fiend's rounded helm, like the toll of a funeral bell. Stygian blood burst from ferric fractures, yet Sunshine's weapon came off worse. Truth shattered as if little more than a gilded mirror. Its falling shards reflected a dozen broken images of herself.

  Through aureate splinters, cruel lips curled to a crescent. "Thy rage is yet t' ripen." He swung the contorted cane.

  Wings whipped, propelling Sunshine backward, away from the brewing magic. She'd assumed the attack would come from the cane itself. She was wrong.

  Ichor erupted. Not as a spout, but a circle of gooey, grub-like tendrils. Lengthy larval appendages formed a dome, caging her like a grounded bird. It seemed the cane granted some kind of control over the helspawn, shaping it to the wielder's will like a snake charmer's flute.

  All around, dribbling abominations wailed and reached from the tentacles. Their touch an agonising death. Their presence a plague upon her psyche. She quickly diverted her eyes to the ruddy mud, only to see a ring of rune-lacerated limbs lay amongst the pulp. She'd raced right into his trap.

  There was no way out. There was no escape. Sunshine was at the mercy of the merciless.

  Shit! Fucked up again! And for the last time too!

  Beyond the umbilical bars, hefty sabatons squelched closer.

  "Bring it on, fuckface!" Sunshine roared. "I'll tear us both apart with my mutating hands!"

  "Patience, Li'le Fledglin'. Thou art all too eager." Nestling parasites choked his booming laughter. "Thy fate will cometh when next we meet, upon a cold, dark night... A fight from which thou shalt ascend, blessed as this world's end."

  Rather than consume her, the fetal feelers narrowed, allowing more light to creep in. She dared a glance through the gaps, and that was when she recognised the cane for what it truly was. Though blackened and warped, it was unmistakably the very same tool Candy Dandy had once held. Now corrupt and in hostile hands, it served a far more heretical purpose.

  ...He wishes the same of me...

  "But first, thou must learn the truth. Seek the door below the palace, an' free thyself o' mine Li'le Flut'ers lies."

  Sunshine didn't know what he was talking about, and she didn't care. "Fuck that! I'll never help you!"

  A knowing grin. "She's in danger..." A swollen slug of a tongue smeared saliva across pest-ridden lips. "...Thy sweet, succulent snowflake."

  Sunshine froze. All of the anger drained from her body, washed away by worry. "...What?"

  "She fights now, outmatched an' alone. The Mother o' Magic will show thee, just as she 'ath shown me. All thou need do is look."

  "I don't believe you." Sunshine shook her head with conscious effort, though the rest of her body shivered of its own accord.

  With a wave of the cane, ichor thickened to blot out all light.

  "Let me go!" Sunshine screamed. Her fists clenched until her palms hurt, yet to lash out would be suicide. "I said, let me go!"

  No response came. No more taunting. No threats nor promises of power. There was only the crying darkness and her own thoughts.

  The others... they'll come, right? ...They should've arrived by now. Winterwish is in trouble... Winterwish will die!

  "No," Sunshine growled.

  She'll die. She'll die. She'll die. She'll die!

  "...Shit!" Sunshine reluctantly raised her gaze to the surrounded ichor. Torrents of fingers crawled through her sockets and drowned her mind in scarring imagery.

  Three glasses of liquid green. Twinned jars of stars.

  An egg hatching beneath a smoken sky. A ship departing in the dead of night.

  Molten rain. Resplendent flame. Talons rending scales.

  Banners burning. Children crying. A stampede in the sky.

  She tried to see past the vague visions, delving deeper, until finally, one last concept emerged. One far clearer than any other.

  Two icy graves bearing precious names.

  Something cut through the haunting black. A scream. Her scream. Deranging dark retreated, and the next thing she knew, she was breaking through the canopy. She didn't hesitate. She didn't question. She didn't look back.

  A great force churned the horizon. An apocalyptic cyclone of ice and snow.

  Sunshine soared towards the storm with everything she had.

  Crystals formed upon feathers, until they could carry her no more. The brittle branches did little to slow her fall. She crashed into the frozen undergrowth, slashed and bruised, but immediately rushed to her feet.

  Grave winds rattled dead trees. Looking ahead caused her eyes to frost, and so she used ice laden wings to shield her face.

  Something smashed through a glaciated bush. Some hideous creature both blackened and whitened by cold. Milky eyes looked to her. It was a Fairy Princess, corrupt yet vulnerable. Near cryodesiccated. Mutated, toothy flesh cracked asunder. Capturing such a pitiful thing would be easy, as would hauling it back to the palace. No one else had ever accomplished such a thing. Not in a century. Not even Splishsplash...

  Barely audible through the shrieking snow, a cry echoed.

  Winterwish!

  Sunshine loosed a gnashing growl and charged into the spectral white. Skin purpled and blistered. Feet numbed until she started to doubt her toes would survive the ordeal.

  Finally, in a familiar field of frozen flowers, she glimpsed something through the shield of torn feathers. Magic like no other. An overwhelming maelstrom of frigidity. Winterwish's aura was spilling out as if a dam had burst.

  "Stay back!" screamed Winterwish. "I can't stop it!"

  I have to save her!

  Sunshine wasted no energy in calling back. It took all she had just to keep moving forward. Each step was a battle. Every inch a hard earned victory. But so long as she kept fighting, kept forcing herself forward no matter what, no matter the pain, no matter the damage, she would reach her friend.

  "Get away!" screamed Winterwish.

  I'll save her!

  Sunshine thrust her hand into the heart of the tempest. Impossible cold ate away at splitting skin, until finally, her fingers found Winterwish's hand.

  The subzero storm calmed immediately. Deathly gales reduced to whispering wind. Blinding blizzard gave way to sparse snow. Not because Winterwish had regained control. No. The magic within her body was fading like a dying candle.

  Fire and blankets would not help this time. Winterwish had unleashed everything. Lost everything. Uncontrolled magic had crystallised her entire body.

  Before Sunshine stood a figure of pure ice. Ice which began to crack. To shift. To tumble.

  Sunshine dived, trying to grab the fragments, desperate to hold her first friend together, only for them to crumble in her grasp.

  Diamond dust slipped through ugly fingers and became one with the wind.