Death wasn't so bad aria thought as she plummeted through the endless darkness. Everything around her was ground up like static, as if she was surrounded by a giant ball of sharp fuzz. Germain squeaked down by her, Dalia glared her way down like fire. Aria couldn't see them but she instinctively knew just how they felt. She felt she'd been trapped with them for so long, birth and death came so quickly that she certainly MUST know.
Eventually the plummeting came to a close. Parts of their souls had been stripped away by the dark colorful fuzz wrapped around them. Their vision eroded, bells ringing in their ears, feeling all but lost. After all you can't feel without a body. But all was not lost. There was still more to come of course.
Not even death could come so easily to these witches.
Red hot fire burned away the fuzz, lighting up everything around them and scorching whatever was left of them.
"What pitiful creatures~ how sad to have fallen soooo faaar~" a deep cat like voice rumbled directly all around them. She could somehow see Hands blazed from beneath them, reaching out ominously. Aria revolted against these horrible things. She found herself squirming like a worm, getting her absolutely no where and frustrating her beyond belief. Nearly blind and deaf and miserable with nothing of her own left to speak of, for the first time in a long time she felt rather powerless here. It grabbed them up like small limp toys and lifted them up to hear it better.
"Ahhh yesss. I've been gleefully awaiting this day little witches~ sooo joyous that you've finally met your doom. A deal is done a life undone~ how loooovly." It growled. It sounded rather threatening in the moment but arias mind was elsewhere.
A deal undone? A deal?...
Her deal. She'd made a deal...with a demon. A deal never fulfilled. It had come for her end of the bargain. Her death.
"Leave us to peace dark one. My death is assured. You've no need to continue tormenting me now" She thought, the feeling of exhaustion and bitterness filling her heart.
"Death has already torn away your breath child. You have nothing left to offer me, peace was never an assurance. Even in death. That is the price you've paid for power. Is it now worth it? When you shall now suffer a powerless eternity of despair in this darkness?" It growled somewhat warmly, as if the creature were chuckling at a tottering child. The insult was not lost on aria whatsoever though and she responded yet again, this time in bitter defiance.
"A death is not done until the last memory comes unwoven dark one. A lesson you yourself should know all too well. My body has yet to rot, the memory of my existence continues in the minds of thousands. I—we—are far from dead." She thought.
"Leave us to peace. Let us return to nothing as all things must do. That is what i desire. You shall deliver what is owed." Aria's frustration mounted as she dreamed of the light beyond. A short yet eternal peace.
Silence rang out beyond her declaration. Though it largely went unnoticed to her whose mind was clearly elsewhere.
"You desire peace now? For you all? A deal undone by blood! My what a declaration little worm. All these years and you've yet to grow a single inch...." the dark one mused. It seemed almost entertained by this proposition, as any god would be once challenged by something so lowly.
Like a dragon being taunted by an ant.
Suddenly laughter rang out across the darkness like thunder. The dark one swooped and flickered like a black hole, consuming everything in its hunger for entertainment.
"Very well child. Your deal shall be honored as you wish. Peace. Freedom. Love. Joy. It shall all be within reach of you." The dark one declared. Its voice reverberated across the darkness like a crashing wave as it began swirling and twisting everything around them. Suddenly they were falling, being pulled lower and lover through smaller and smaller holes until they finally reached the final one.
One by one they were each squeezed through a tiny tight hole into a horribly cold place. Squirming and voices and hands seemed to be everywhere all at once. Energy flowed freely and bright lights blinded them. It was all entirely too much. Warm soft blankets wrapped tightly around them. Tiny hats and tight embraces soothed the discomfort a bit. A calm humming and soft kisses lulled them bit by bit, praying on new found exhaustion. A small cry came from one side, slicing through arias gradually building relaxation. A furious screech erupted from another side, followed by the shocked muttering and coos of the voices above them, though that did very little to quell the noise.
Eventually everything went quiet and the warmth overwhelmed the newly born children, lulling them to sleep just as a pair of perfectly manicured hands pointed at the door, ordering it opened. Knights dressed in glimmering black armor and red cloth rammed the door open, destroying it in their wake. The red clothed people inside shuttered back from the commotion in horror.
Click* click* click* sounded the red headed woman's heels as her long elegant green gown swished around her tall imposing form.
"Well, well, well. Suppose it's a bit strange to find you All here!" The woman announced, her hands waving dramatically.
"Clergymen of palda~ forbidden from my wood. Here, trespassing." She said In an icy cold voice spat by a sicking smile filled with eager malice.
"Witch of gerit, this holy church is none of yours! Begone from this sacred place with your demon work, lest you further sully this holy space and insult the gods therein!" A man in a long red robe, baring intricate golden pattern, announced boldly from the pew above the others. The man's peers seemed emboldened by his declaration and quickly turned to the witch with angry eyes.
A quiet chuckle filled the silent, baron building.
"Ah yes. Lest I sully my own building~ indeed." She chuckled with a sigh. "Who do you think sent name here human? Why those very gods. A gift of prophecy~ some gift." The woman spat bitterly.
"If the blasphemous words you speak are true, then your gods have sent you to your death witch." The man said coldly. The woman let out a sigh and sank into a seat of vines that quickly manifested beneath her towering form, enveloping her body perfectly.
"It matters to me not whose gods were involved sir, only that you have trespassed on my land, into a building I own, and sullied my objects with this horrific ritual you've cast. Your death will come for you now. But it is not mine to deliver. Not today. Take your accomplices and leave this place." The woman said quietly, waving them away like petulant schoolchildren.
The parishioners looked to their leader for guidance and received little in return as his attention was wholly focused on the witch. Fury and hate burning in his tightened fists and piercing gaze.
The parishioners gathered up everything, including the newly born infants, preparing to make a flee for their lives. At least most of them did.
Suddenly a bolt of bright red lightning swerved and bent unnaturally around the witch's head. She watched out of the corner of her eye, boredom and disappointment staining her gaze as she sat up and ordered the parishioners killed right then and there. The dark glimmering knights rushed forward immediately drawing their huge silver swords.
Screams suddenly rang out across the church. Bodies were pierced and gutted, heads rolled, necks sliced, limbs severed one after another. The leader and those around him watched in absolute horror for mere seconds before fleeing for their lives behind the stage. Others followed, some successful others dead until the church was once again silent. Save for the sheathing of swords and the dripping of blood. And the wail of a baby.
The witch had been watching the woman on the altar for some time now. Her gaze fixated on the golden haired saint, now lay slaughtered like sheep on the alter of her most trusted allies. Pity, she thought Solemnly.
After a bit The tiny wail caught the witches eye.
Two knights stood above a pair of corpses clutching bundled black blankets. They watched, confusion echoing through every tiny movement, though neither moved to investigate the sound both watched with vague interest.
"Bring it to me. I wish to see the tiny things for myself." The woman said almost warmly. The knights nearby startled to attention and quickly knelt down to recover the tiny infants. They rushed over with the bundles in their arms, kneeling before their mistress and holding up the babies for inspection.
The woman looked at them with bemused curiosity, her eyes narrowing as she drew a long pointed red nail across the pale blotchy chubby cheek of one of the infants, then up to the thick golden curls of another and the tiny chubby hand of the third.
"Wrap them up and take them to the carriage. Be gentle." The woman sighed, a stern sharpness filling her voice. Her hand waving dismissively and body leaning back in the makeshift chair with a slight slump.
"At once my lady." One of the knights answered quickly. His black armor clanked quietly as he stood, his men following him out, cradling the tiny infants out gently and quietly.