Alchimia Rex

May Brown opened her eyes for the first time in what felt like forever. She didn’t recognize her surroundings; it would be hard to forget the lush green beauty that surrounded her from every direction. Far above, the treetops glittered with bits of sunlight filtering through. The young woman had been sleeping in a bed of emerald green moss, she was dressed in a soft lime dress.

Her last memory was of getting on a carriage with Miss Alice, and… something had happened, but everything after that had been so incredibly fuzzy, like a very long dream…

There was a little concern and shock as she looked down at herself; her arms were thinner than they should’ve been. It reminded her of how bony her grandmother’s arms had become after her stay in the hospital. Why was she here? Her skin tingled, and the air around her felt thick with… something.

May was finding it hard to think clearly. Maybe she was in a dream, half-asleep and not entirely present. She tried to sit up, to look past the mossy bed she lay in, but she could not find the strength to do so; her body felt so impossibly heavy…

“There is too much damage; I’m not sure how much I can work with,” The person speaking had a soft voice, purring straight into May’s head. The voice made her warm inside, and she smiled despite herself.

“But can you do it?” Another voice, a different person.

May twitched at the sound of it, shivers of dread running through her even if she didn’t know why. Again, she tried to move, but this time a hand reached out, pressing her forehead back against the moss. The warmth returned, and all was well again.

“I might need to go all out on this one,” the warm voice soothed May, the hand idly caressing her hair. “It might interfere with that ritual your… thing is doing.”

“That is not acceptable.” The harsher voice snapped. “The ritual is necessary; otherwise, she won’t be able to bond with everyone.”

The hand on May twitched. “...everyone? You didn’t say anything about…”

“You know what you need to do.”

The fingers against May’s forehead twitched again. “This might kill her, that many bonds…”

“That is my concern, not yours.”

“It’s my concern when you could go back on our deal.” The softer voice hissed. “Her dying means you’ll only get a handful of these to wake up, not everyone.”

There was no answer. May just lay there, staring at the streaks of light overhead. The tree-tops felt so far away… as if the very sky had become a canopy of leaves. There was nothing to be worried about though, not with this warmth suffusing through her body. She tried to think, but everything was just so comfortable…

“Work within the confines of the ritual. If you cannot do so, then we will have to re-evaluate whether this deal is worth keeping.”

The warm stranger pulled her hand away from May, the young woman whimpering at the lack of contact.

“Then I guess I can just do nothing and watch you fail.” A lilting laugh followed. “Don’t give me that look, you called for my expertise, and now you’re trying to play a fast one on me when you reek of desperation?”

“Fine.”

“No. I came here looking for information, and now you’re making me doubt you even have it.” The hand came back, and all the worries flew out of May once more; she melted into the moss, sighing in relief. “I want to hear it.”

A growl rang out. “The Queen.”

“Just the Queen.” The voice emphasized. “No ritual.”

“No.” The voice barked back. “So long as the Queen awakens, you will get what you came for. If the ritual kills the human before she can awaken any others, then that will be, as you say, my problem.”

A sigh. “Workable,” the soft voice said, but there was some hesitation. “Let’s get this over with.”

The warm hand against May’s forehead left her once more, and the soft woman stepped into view, with dazzling azure blue hair and waxy black horns. The woman held May’s cheeks with a tingling touch, looking at her with deep golden eyes, an eternal fuzzy warmth and kindness pouring out through those orbs.

“Can you hear me?” She asked with a whisper of honeyed words.

May tried to speak, but the woman sealed her lips with a finger, the digit trailing down in a road of sensation not too unlike television static. May groaned and weakly squirmed, trying to make sense of the pattern being drawn on her face by that lone touch, trying to discern if there was any significance to it.

“Just let go, relax,” the woman declared as if May were anything other than a puddle of a person, poured into a mossy bed and left to simmer. “This won’t hurt a bit.”

It didn’t hurt, but her numbed nerves jolted with intensity, confused and certain there should have been some kind of discomfort.

May’s hand was lifted up, the arm bending out and leaving her palm to rest upon something cold. In the next spasm, her fingers entwined with those of a dead hand; she couldn't see the owner, but she clenched all the same. Everything was so intense, her existence boiling outwards in heat.

“Just follow your emotions.”

The world started to spin, white noise drowning out her own heartbeat, eyes open but unable to see, mind swirling as the dead hand clenched back. Suddenly, the moss around her began to vibrate, the leaves above swirled, and the trees sang and thrummed with an ancient power.

And with a gasp, May found herself alone, standing atop a grassy hill.

Everything around her was out of place, the world was slightly skewed and blurred, yet her thoughts felt sharper than they’d been in… forever. Everything after that carriage trip with Alice was a fog of barely-remembered sensations and fear.

May glanced around, the grassy hill had been lost in a sea of green, but now there were trees sprouting here and there. She moved closer to one of them, marveling at how they grew taller and thicker with every passing second. Up and up they went, until their canopies pushed past the clouds, growing outwards and covering the sky.

“You are in my domain, little mortal,”

The voice came from everywhere all at the same time, every tree speaking with the same vibrant, powerful voice.

“Uhm…” May shivered a little, glancing about nervously. “I didn’t mean to be here. Can I… is there a way out?”

There was no answer, not in words. The forest trembled, roots wriggling out of the earth, slowly at first, and then breaching the soil in explosions of dust and rock. They reached out, grasping at anything they could, crushing boulders to dust, churning the soil, and seething.

May ran.

Her legs took her as fast as she could, the world blurred around her, the trees flew past her in a messy swirl of browns, greens, and yellows. Everything shifted, and her legs came to a sudden halt near a precipice.

She looked down the chasm, and there she found a crumbling city. Skyscrapers with all their windows shattered, revealing hollow, moldy office buildings, industrial complexes consumed by rust and collapsed under their own weight, houses burnt to their foundations with nothing left behind save scorch marks.

Looking back, the forest was still growing.

The trees were so tall the blue of the sky made it impossible to see their tops. The roots marched outwards like a tidal wave, consuming the land, causing more trees to sprout and grow, turning the world into a mass of wood and foliage.

“Another one.”

It was the same voice as before, this time coming from a single place, a woman that stood right next to May. She was tall, gauntly so, a woman that might have looked like a human at first glance, yet the longer May looked the more things felt out of place. The arms being slightly too long, the eyes slightly too large, the mouth slightly too broad, the hair slightly too dark. It was as if she were a creature made of small impossible things coalesced into a mockery of the human shape.

This creature - this woman, if that was what she was - turned her head ever so slightly to glance at May through the corner of her emerald green eyes. The same green of trees in summer.

“A second human, it must mean the previous one was no accident,” she spoke with a voice of creaking branches and rustling leaves. “Only a failure.”

Below them, the roots burst out of the walls of the cliffside. From the city, screams rang out, jets of fire and gunshots desperately struggling to fight off the encroaching wood. But it was impossible to fend off the encroaching roots, the plants plunging down onto the city, piercing it at its core.

“Kneel, human. That is your way out.”

She'd turned to face May, dressed in armor of gold and silver. The woman held a bow of shimmering sunlight, her head crowned with a thousand flowers. The Empress of Green took a step towards her, and all May could do was watch in horror and awe.

“Kneel, human,” she commanded once more with a voice that made the world tremble, that shook the very earth.

Facing May in full, the presence of the Empress bore down like a yoke, the human's body shaking from the impossible weight. Something in May refused, however, but she lacked the strength to fight. She collapsed backward, her backside hitting the ground, desperately scrambling away from the creature that wielded such immeasurable power.

“Submit.”

She stepped closer, standing in her full regal glory, a Goddess of the forest, of nature, of the very world.

May desperately wanted to get out of there; she wanted to kneel and bow and scrape, anything to escape this terrifying space of impossible things. But her chest burned brightly with fire and anger, one that was not her own, one that came from elsewhere.

“Resist,” a voice whispered into her ear, silky soft and full of tingles. “She cannot harm you,” it promised.

The Empress’ scowl deepened. “Someone's helping you.”

Slowly, she raised her bow, drawing it, plucking a beam of light out of the very sun and turning it into an arrow. “She is right; I cannot harm you. But that does not mean you cannot feel pain.” The string of moonlight grew taut, the emerald eyes becoming fierce. “Yield, human. This will be my only mercy.”

May looked upon the beam of searing light and trembled. “I…” Her chest was burning, so much anger was growing within her. “I can't!” The shout was a mix of terror and defiance.

Pulling herself away as quickly as she could, her hands met air.

The next second she was tumbling down the cliff, screaming, reaching out for anything before she crashed at the bottom of the abyss. Roots shattered through the earth, reaching out to her outstretched hand, and…

With a gasp, May found herself back in the mossy bed.

All around her there was violence; the beautiful woman of blue hair and kind eyes was snarling, her clothes torn to shreds as she lashed with wicked nails at the nearest foe. All around her there were soldiers - women dressed in leather - wielding spears tipped with forks.

Next to May stood a person covered in white cloth, one watching the unfolding fight. “Do not let her cast a teleportation spell,” she commanded with a voice heavy with anger, barely sparing a glance at the young woman, snarling with disgust.

The blue-haired woman fought as best she could, waves of semi-transparent energy blasting out from her body and claws biting through wood and armor, all while her own skin was seemingly untouchable. Yet she held no chance, no method to escape. Eventually the soldiers used their spears with oddly forked tips to pin her to a tree.

“This could have gone so much easier if you'd not lied to us, Kiara.” The white-clothed woman approached. “Bringing a disposable human? I knew something was amiss when my darlings did not catch that delectable aroma he carried with him last we’d met. What was your goal?”

“None, if you’d kept your nose in your own damn business,” the horned woman with blue hair snarled. “You’d kill my human in a heartbeat, of course I’d leave him behind.”

“You’re smart, I’ll give you that. This little stunt guarantees I need you alive.” She held out a seed, approaching the restrained woman and pressing it against her forehead. “But much like the Warlock, I require your obedience, not your mind.”

Kiara thrashed. May couldn't see what was happening, trying and failing to find the strength in her legs to pull herself up to her feet. Her lower body was numb, unresponsive to her commands, yet the lingering anger urged her to pull herself up, if only to better see.

The blue-haired woman screamed, pulses of purple and pink light coalescing through her body. It became incandescent, blinking on and off at near-blinding intensity. Several other screams joined in, alongside a cascade of moans. Warmth washed over May like a morning sun, her face heating up as she covered her eyes.

Two bodies tumbled out of the searing purple miasma.

Sivent had fallen to her back, hands clenching tightly onto both of Kiara's claws. The blue-haired woman's sharp nails were barely inches away from her foe's throat.

“I see, you figured out a way to kill the seed before it could take root.” The woman of white moved fast, raising her legs to kick off her attacker.

Kiara snarled, then spared a glance at May before frowning.

She lunged at the human.

“NON-LETHAL!” Sivent screamed.

A singular spear fell upon Kiara, piercing through her arm, hammering against the mossy floor with the percussive force of an explosion. In an instant, a dozen more followed, and the woman was abruptly held mid-air, not by her wings but by the spears that penetrated her limbs from multiple angles.

She’d been made into a living pin-cushion, thick red blood trickling from the many injuries. Yet Kiara didn’t scream, gritting her teeth. “Fucking…” She heaved through choked breaths, golden eyes looking at May with what could only be a look of apology, heavy with regret.

“You’ve already made this more complicated than it has to be,” Sivent said, standing up and smoothing out her white clothes. “But even if you’d killed her, there are other pureblooded humans within reach. Barry, for one, though he already failed in this. But your own human is pureblooded as well, isn’t he? May had much to say about her ‘teacher.’ Do you truly think he is safe with that Sabertooth and the Orcs?”

May grit her teeth, watching Kiara pale.

“You regressive rabble don't understand what it means to be a maiden; you don’t even know the true potential hidden within you. Techniques, spells, and so much more were lost to time. Looking at you all is like staring at apes flinging sticks and mud.” She laughed. “We might be weakened, true, but within the Empress’ forest, none can escape us.”

“Yeah, well, there’s a smart mud-flinging bumpkin of a healer that outsmarted your little star project. It’s thanks to her that your little parasite won’t be useful on any of us.” Kiara chuckled weakly. “Just don’t tell her I said that.”

“Succubi, always with your taunting, your empty words and barbs.” Sivent marched up to May, sparing only a glance at Kiara. “Just to be clear, I did intend to tell you how to ascend. Mostly because it is useless information for a cripple like you.”

May flung her arms at the monster that covered her face in white cloth; her arms were snatched without effort, and a wave of drowsiness washed over her. Her legs, formerly wobbly, now failed entirely.

“Then say it,” Kiara spat.

“Let us not pretend you aren’t disabled. A Succubus of your age, with your capacity for fine energy manipulation? You should’ve ascended by now.” Sivent turned only her head to glance at her opponent, sneering. “But I’ve seen others like you; something shattered you, long ago, and now the more power you use, the more it hurts. You can’t even bring your full strength to bear without collapsing from the agony.”

“No, I…” Kiara’s eyes were wild, unfocused. “I just need a human immune to-”

“You might have, once, but it is a requirement you’ve outgrown without realizing it.” Sivent laughed, pulling May up into the air by her wrists, dangling her in front of Kiara. “Humans like this one are so frail, yet they remain useful. Bonding aside, they serve as a great way to improve finer control. After all, apply just a little too much energy and…”

The tingling in her wrists suddenly became a searing heat. Something within her body wriggled, pain flaring out all over. She whimpered, muscles spasming, breathing hard and uneven.

“Torturing her gets you nothing,” Kiara declared in a dejected whisper, not truly looking at anything, gaze fixed on the ground, a curtain of blue hair hiding her face from sight. Her own body tense against the spear-sized arrows keeping her held above the ground.

“That is true. I am merely… venting.” With a shrug, she dropped May, letting her crumple on the mossy floor, sobbing weakly and curling into a ball. “You broke my key, and I need it fixed. One way or the other, the Empress will awaken, and she will take what is hers.”

“Never,” May growled with a sob, drying her tears with shaking hands. “I… will never-”

Sivent kicked at her gut, a light blow, but enough to drive the air out of her. “Your willingness to cooperate never mattered, human. Unfortunately, I cannot say the same about the Succubus over here.” She crossed her arms. “But if there is one thing that has not changed over these many centuries, it is a maiden’s weakness to their bond. I am lucky you lack the knowledge or means on how to quickly break yours, perhaps if you did then you’d be able to prolong this little resistance for more than a few days.”

Kiara laughed. “You can’t get to him.”

“You will find that, as long as he remains within our forest, I can.”

Turning away from May and Kiara, Sivent marched towards the center of the grove, slowly spreading her arms and looking up at the trees. Her clothes wriggled, then tore, revealing a sea of vines and bark, barely a shred of flesh or skin to be seen below the white-cloth-covered head.

“My sisters!” She sang, voice shrill. “There’s rabble sullying the Empress’ palace! There are invaders laying siege to her majesty’s domain!”

Summoned by the call, figures began to emerge amongst the treetops. One after the other, each shrouded in cloaks of leaves and wielding bows larger than they were tall. Each and every one looked upon Sivent with gleaming eyes of gold.

“Bring me the human named Rick, kill all others that stand in our way!”

Without a word, without a sound, they vanished.