Beginning of the end

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No one can recall dates any longer. Help was coming, they had promised. Who wouldn't believe the promise made to by the brightest minds of the time to the richest families of the time? It had been long enough now that the original citizens of Rapture now had young adult grandchildren. The city had been built just for them. Their lavish playground, or so they liked to believe. It was many years now since anything had been truly 'lavish', it was only as the joy now made them see it; glorious and delightfully decadent.

Some families considered themselves better than others, and rightly so. Few had the money and the power, while the many lived in squalor. One of these families were the Jansen's. The eldest son had two beautiful daughters, who in the society they had left would no doubt have been attendees of many parties and balls, all for the purpose of finding a husband. As it stood, the youngest girl seemed the most adept at wearing her mask. By day she was the spoiled little princess she was supposed to be, making fun of the lower classes and generally being a horrible person. But as night fell and her joy pill began to wear off... She often thought of life outside her parent's massive apartment, of life in the 'workers' levels of the city. Anika Jansen would fall asleep troubled by the things her imagination thought up. It was this particular night that she had finally plucked up the courage to slip out of her parent's home, though of course she would stand out a mile in her expensive clothing and perfect make up.

"No." Samantha's answer was simple and firm. "Better to have that damn king owe a favour, than to have him want our heads." She added. "If we go back on our deal and cross Deacon again, no mystic in the land will be safe. We can't let that hunter kill the queen."

Anika had screwed her eyes shut, wanting to believe all this talk about her having magic of her own. Maybe she could somehow reach her sister herself.

"How do we stop it?" The woman asked, her fingers shaking as they rested over the hovering crystal. "He has the knife out. She's in the darkness. It's gone too far." 
"Send the king a message, girl." Another woman hissed at Anika. "His magics will get him to the queen in time to stop it. Then...we will see how far his feeling have developed." 
"He will save her." The young woman who was using her magic to heal Elliot said softly. "Things in the kingdom are already changing. The goblins themselves are changing...." 

"Deacon..." Victoria jerked her head back. Something called her out of the darkness though she would never be sure of what it was. "Deacon!" She screamed his name, now struggling with the hunter even though every movement was pure agony. 
"Hold still you little..." The hunter sliced her cheek, taking a long piece of hair with it. "I need your damn eyes!"

Knowing Elliot's pain would be eased was enough to allow Anika to focus on helping her sister now. The dark haired woman had her eyes closed once more, searching for a spark in the dark. There it was. Golden, like his hair. "He's searching for her..." She murmured, then her eyes suddenly snapped open. They were now pure purple, no white to them at all and they glowed brightly. 

Deacon quite suddenly fell from his horse as what eh thought was a young woman appeared directly in it's path. He picked himself up and looked for what he thought would be a cowering woman. Instead he saw the very creature he despised, and had set the bounty for. "You..."
"Hush." Anika told him firmly, her ghostly image fading slightly. "Victoria is in danger. A hunter has her, he has mistaken her for me and is wishing to collect a bounty for her eyes. Thank you for that, by the way. They are not far from you. Go!"

Elliot was watching his lover, ashamed to admit he was terrified. He'd never seen anything like this. His magic was nothing like this. 

The hunter had Victoria on the ground, the arrow in her back digging in deeper. She could do nothing but gasp, tasting her own blood. She was alone and dying, the way her father always said she would. She deserved this. She was not worthy of saving. 
The hunter held her head back, getting the perfect angle. Her eyes were so lovely. His king would be pleased.

The moment the king had disappeared in search of his queen, Anika's ghostly projection had disappeared, and her flesh and blood body slumped to the ground. It would upset her to think her goblin lover considered her a something to fear now.
Samantha rolled her eyes, somewhat more jaded than the other mystics. "That was it?" She snorted. "If that's the best she can do, Arthurian is going to be real disappointed."

The hunter would find out rather suddenly just what his king's feelings were on this situation. A sword jutted through the man's shoulder, missing enough vital areas that it wouldn't kill him right away. "I am quite certain you are aware of the penalty for touching the Queen, let alone causing her injury!" He snarled.

"What was that?" Elliot asked. He moved closer, gathering Anika in his arms and holding her against him. "Why was it nothing to you? What makes you better?" He was stroking her temple with his thumb, his fingers calming and gentle.

"I...i...what? The queen....no! I was going after the violet eyes you asked for. You offered a bounty. She...I saw...her eyes..." he looked back at the gasping, writhing woman noticing now her eyes were gray. "Majesty, please!" He howled.

"It was nothing, because if she truly is made of pure magic, I expected more." Samantha scoffed, her temper seeming to flare every time Elliot of Anika showed any kind of care for one another. "You don't actually love her, you know that, right? The magic she was made from conditions people to care for and protect her, as she clearly can't do it herself. Why do you think her sister sacrificed so much without knowing why?"

"Perhaps next time you should make certain." The king snarled, twisting the blade that was still in the hunter's shoulder. "Oh wait... There wont be a next time." He sneered, the thumb of his free hand pressing into the poor man's left eye until it popped inside it's own socket.

"What did she sacrifice? No one wants the girl! She is a pitiful thing and I hope she dies!" Elliot roared. "You know nothing!" 
"What the devil is going on out here!" Arthurian demanded, his cloak pulled over his deformed frame. 

Victoria would never get the man's screams out of her mind. It made her chest hurt. The man's blade drowned to the ground beside her but she had little strength to pick it up. She'd lost too much blood.

Samantha smiled very slightly, though as she turned away the shadow of her hood masked it. "Nothing, your majesty. The boy was simply wailing that his pathetic girl there simply isn't strong enough for anything."

Deacon scooped his queen up into his arms and simply left the poor hunter where he was. He didn't return her to the goblin city, or even to where he had left his men. The king instead took his bride to a small lodge deep in the heart of the thickest past of the forest. The place was rather neglected in comparison to the castle, but still a beautiful home by any other standards.

"I felt the magic shifting." Arthurian snorted, shaking his head. "The mirror in the inner hall cracked. An odd thing to be sure but nothing special." He turned his head, looking down at Anika. "So the girl is weak...How disappointing...but will she be able to save my....my mother and return me to my human form?" 
"You're ugly no matter what you look like." Elliot snapped, glaring at him. "There's no point in trying." 

"I-I'm sorry." Victoria gasped out. "I was just....my sister needs me...I left her to die...Please..." The arrow was still there. It felt like it was tearing apart her insides. She'd never been in so much pain in all her life.

"You could crack open that pretty little melon of hers and simply force the magic out." Samantha replied sweetly.

"Your sister is not your concern right now." Deacon breathed as he gently laid Victoria face down on the bed and left to move around the bathroom to gather some item sup in order to remove the arrow. "You cannot be there to catch her every time she falls."

"Or you could. That's your job as a mystic is it not?" Arturian hissed, turning ice colored eyes on her. "Don't test me, girl. Don't think I don't know that you mock me every chance you get. I should kill you and bathe in your blood." 

"I...have to...it's what I was...born...for..." Victora gasped out, turning her head to watch him. "Don't...just leave me...it hurts. Deacon don't..." She knew she sounded weak but for the first time in her life she was truly afraid.

"Need I remind you that the rest of your little harem of hags couldn't find their asses with both hands?" Samantha replied rather curtly. "I'm alive because as much as you loathe it, you need me as much as you do her."

Deacon was still sore about Victoria knocking him out like she had. "I get it... You would die, just to get away from me. Well sorry, your highness, but I wont be letting you off that easily."

The king grabbed the front of Samantha's cloak and hauled her against him. "Let's get something straight. I don't need any of you. I keep you here because I'm bored. You're all worthless and little more than animal fodder to me. You most of all." 

"No...It's just...going to hurt...Please..." A single tear slid down Victoria's temple and landed with a plop on the bed. "I'm sorry...for what I did...you weren't going to...listen...I have to help my sister...It's all I was born to do...I have no other...use...my father...said so..."

Samantha's green eyes almost seemed to glow when Arthurian showed aggression towards her. "Then free your mother yourself. Shed that pig ugly shell and return to what you were. Oh... that's right... You can't." She told him with a mocking smile.

"You are Queen of an entire kingdom now, Victoria. You have a responsibility to more than one foolish little girl." Deacon replied, seeming so much more serious than the frivolous king she had known so far. "You did what your father forced of you, you get here here. Now she has run off with what used to be my best friend..."

Arthurian all but shoved the young woman to the floor, his talons tearing at her cloak. He roared with rage and began breaking everything in sight. Even the other mystic woman's crystal was not safe from him. In moments he had destroyed the entire room and stood in the center of it, snarling and bleeding like a stuck pig. 

Victoria wasn't answering anymore. She was fighting to keep herself awake and out of the darkness she was so afraid. Pain was one thing but darkness was worse.

Through the shreds of her cloak it could just about be seen that Samantha wore a rather ornate green dress with a fitted bodice and free flowing skirt. It would seem perfectly normal on Victoria or Anika, but for a mystic slave... extremely unusual. The blonde was picking herself up and covering herself with her cloak once more. "Are you done?" She asked Arthurian, as though he had done nothing more than toss a glass of water at her.

The darkness had always known Victoria feared it, just as her 'sister' didn't even seem to acknowledge he even existed. As she remained silent and on the edge of unconsciousness Deacon removed the arrow. He was quick to press a cloth to the wound and relieve her pain as much as he could with herbs and various strange smelling tonics.

Arthurian could feel that something was wrong with his child, just as he'd felt it the night the goblin king had killed his beloved. "Where is she?" He breathed, his icy eyes on Sam. "Where is Victoria?" He demanded, his chest heaving.

Victoria stayed in this state for several days, fighting her way back to her husband and away from the soft whispers that were telling her to sleep in the soft darkness forever. It was so tempting. It would have been so very easy to give in. But Deacon needed her. It was no longer the thought of her sister, but the the reminder that the goblin king would die without her that kept her going.

Samantha offered Arthurian that infuriating smile again, the one that made her seem all the more mysterious as mostly her lips were the only part of her visible. "You smashed the crystal, we can't tell you that any more." She purred.

Deacon had remained awake for several days, fussing over Victoria's wound, worrying that she would need food and water, perhaps before she was even conscious. Eventually, however, it had finally been too much. The King was in a chair beside the bed, slumped forward with his head on the ornate quilt that covered it Queen.

"Fix it." He hissed. The king of the cursed lands was a cruel man, though it hadn't always been that way. "You made the first one. I saw you. Make another. I need to see her!" 

Victoria woke with a gasping breath. She'd almost let go. If not for the blinding golden light she'd been following so closely, she'd have listened to her mother calling for her. 
Gingerly, she rested her hand on her husband's head, running her fingers through his hair.

"To make another one you know very well that I need to go into the dark forest to find a suitable piece of amethyst." Samantha sniffed.

Deacon's whole body suddenly jerked awake, crimson eyes taking a moment to focus as they rested upon Victoria. "You didn't hate me enough to die..."

"Take those two." The king said, waving his talons at elliot and Anika. "The rest of you will clean this mess up. It's offending me." 

Victoria was still weak. It took her a moment to pull her hand back from him. "Why would I hate you?"

"I don't need them." Samantha replied rather defensively. "Least of all her!" She added. "You know what kind of thing live there, the last thing I need is some prissy little princess squealing because something brushed her leg!"

"Well... it seems you take every chance you can to get away from me." Deacon pointed out, still sounding rather tired.

"You are taking the warrior. The girl is a package deal I'm afraid." Arthurian said with an actual chuckle. "Try not to enjoy yourself too much, my dear. All that frowning is bad for your complexion."

Victoria didn't answer. After all, what could she say when he was so very right? "You should get some sleep. We'll need to return to your people soon. I'm sure they're worried about you."

"He couldn't even stand up to your men, what use will he be in the dark forest?" Samantha scoffed, though was already sweeping to the door.

"Let them worry a little while longer." Deacon breathed. "Call this... a honeymoon." He replied with a tired, but amused smile.

Again the king chuckled. If he'd have looked close he'd have seen his skin begin to change colors. "I never told you that, my lovely. When I brought him here there was no one but myself and Robin. Why do you think that was?" He purred. "He murdered them all with nothing but his hands. Why do you think the little goblin is still alive?" 

"A honeymoon?" Victoria asked, for once not knowing a term from the world she'd grown up in. "What does that mean?"

"Because he is your only way of controlling the girl." Samantha replied with another sweet smile.

"Well..." This seemed to cheer Deacon up a little. "A honeymoon is when two people get to hide away and do what they want, to hell with the rest of the world." He replied, taking hold of Victoria's and squeezing it gently.

"Hardly. I am a man of power. I have ways of doing things even you aren't aware of. I kept him because he is a warrior. Probably the same reason his king did. He is of more use to me right now than you." Arthurian snorted, though his mood had taken a rather jovial turn. 

"That's something new. I don't think I've ever even considered it. Have you?" Victoria asked him.

"Fine, have your warrior create a seeing crystal for you then." Samantha hissed, disappearing in a swirl of green mist before Arthurian could get another word in.

"Maybe I misunderstood, but until a week ago, you never entertained marriage, did you?" Deacon breathed, sliding himself onto the bed beside his wife.

The king turned to Anika, knowing she had woken up some time ago. "Learn how to make one. I don't care who teaches you." He said, though his tone wasn't as firm as usial. "And might I add, we had a deal. You owe me answers."

"Only the marriage my father told me I would have." Victoria confessed. "The one where I became a slave to a man who wanted nothing but children from me. "