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Livia glared down at Rugal with equal parts revulsion and empathy. Even though he had thrust each and every piece of energy back into the stone blades, the world around him seemed to be brighter. The wind was sweeter and the sun was warmer. He had not noticed before, but he could hear the soft chirping of magpies over the clear trickle of cold water in the fountain a block away. The clamor of conversation was less of an overlapping cacophony now. Voices had harmony. The ruffle of fabrics in a passing breeze took him back into reality.
"Oh my, oh my," Fu Kua said as he hurried to Rugal's side. "What happened? Heat stroke? It is quite warm." He produced a waterskin from his belt. "Here, drink this. It will help."
"What are you talking about?" Livia finally vocalized. She held Sinister and Dexter closely against her breast. They seemed to shimmer gold.
"As if I would let anyone just have them. They were my mother's!"
There was someone behind Livia. A golden phantom in a white dress, hair as red as blood and eyes as blue as the sea. She looked bewildered, half-here and half-there.
Why does she look like me?
Small metal trinkets chimed against each other from circlets on her wrists and ankles. She was wearing ornate armor over her dress. Golden slivers wrapped around her body like the roots of an ancient tree. Her breastplate was colored glass in the shape of a blooming flower.
She grasped the air before her, where Livia was standing holding onto her knives. From Rugal's position on the floor, it looked like the two women were both holding onto the knives. In Livia's hands they were throwing knives, in the hands of the phantom, they were two ends of a single twinblade.
She turned around.
Where is Kyuubey? Where am I?
Then she suddenly seem to come to. She staggered back as if she had been hit by an invisible blow. She held her head in her hands and collapsed onto her knees, falling through Livia.
This isn't Egypt. Where's Cleopatra!? Where's that *****!? Kyuubey! Kyuubey! You lied to me! You told me that she didn't know that was coming!
Rugal found himself above an emerald sea. The skies were on fire, smoke smothered the clouds and soot rained down like black snow. The water ripped itself apart into snarling serpents. Near the far shore a massive snake coiled against the horizon. It's scales borne of sorcerous sand and it's fangs the white limestone of Alexandria's shore.
Streaks of flame tumbled through the sky and tore into his flock. The screech of griffins and eagles bit into his heart and stomach. He couldn't stand the smell of burning feathers.
He felt the Leviathan swell from below the surface of the oil-slicked water. It was having trouble seeing out of it's briny domain. Still, huge tentacles broke the surface and slammed onto the shore. The Leviathan dragged himself onto the burning sand, bringing with him the brood of the sea.
A nude figure stood on top of the snake. Bronze jewelry decorated her body and she held a long oaken staff in her hands. Her eyes were blackened with coal, and her lips were twisted into a cruel smile. She raised her staff and another stream of fire ripped through the flock. The eagle Rugal was on ducked into sea. He could feel the momentous passing of the Leviathan as it struggled to pull the snake of sands into the sea. The eagle broke the surface again, slick with the Egyptian oil that had stained the water. Rugal had to fight back the urge to puke. The oil smelled rancid.
His heart was heavy. He yearned for the daughter and son that he had to leave at home, torn away from her family by his duty to the state. His homestead in Etruria, where the amber wheat lilted gently on rolling hills. Where the foundations of a homestead had just begun to be laid. His longing grew into fury. He stood up, screaming at the top of his lungs. The words were incomprehensible, but their form did not matter. What mattered was that his adversary, the Witch, heard his fury, his longing, and his absolute loathing.
He jumped, soaring through the air with twinblade in hand. The stone was light, glowing with both anticipation and bloodlust. He landed on one of the jackal demons on the shore. The stone blade bit deep into it's hide and Rugal twisted the sword. He knew all of the hatred of the demon, the fear of the invaders. He accepted it, took it all inside of himself and snuffed it out. The jackal grew still and turned to white stone. It's life drained into the bleeding edge of the twinblades. With another flourish of his hands, he shattered the statue of the jackal into dust with the second edge.
The Sand Snake and the Leviathan crashed against the land some way away, throwing brine and sand high into the air. The earth shook. Jackals swarmed around her. Feathered missiles tore into the snapping mass of black dogs from above. The screech of eagles and griffins echoed against the howl of the hellhounds.
"Cleopatra!" he took off toward the base of the snake, sword tearing apart the jackals as they leaped at him. With a strong kick, he set himself up the length of the giant snake, toward the perch of the Egyptian Queen.
"Serra!" Cleopatra answered.
The two women clashed, twinblade against staff in the burning sky over Alexandra as their familiars tore into each other. Rugal couldn't think. There was only rage here. A painful, longing, rage born of bitterness. Their blows came like the rain. An unrelenting flurry of stone against bronze. He could feel each strike ringing in the bones of his arm, each kick, each twist and turn of his body was met with an equivalent strike from the Egyptian Queen.
The howl of a jackal caught him off guard as the black shadow barreled into his side. But he twisted around and launched the hellhound with a full-bodied kick. He landed several meters away from Cleopatra, who stood defiantly upon the writhing serpent in brazen nudity. Every inch of her skin was slick with some sort of clear oil. A trick, or a poison for sure. She raised her staff at Rugal and charged. Rugal ducked to the left and struck out with the white edge of his twinblade, but Cleopatra caught it with the short end of her staff. He swung to the right and met with the hard resistance of a block. He twisted and landed a kick on her side, launching her out into the sky.
His foot burned. He looked down. The oil was eating through the metal braces around his foot. He spat,
"Spineless!"
Cleopatra snapped her fingers and a whirlwind of fire manifested around Rugal. He turned and tumbled out of the wall of flame, but as his foot passed through the fire, it exploded. The pain was blinding as he was hurled through the air. Two eagles caught him by the shoulders. He looked down and were his right foot used to be was now a bleeding, blackened stump. He pushed the white edge of his twinblade into his foot and twisted, forcing the tissues to grow out in a cancerous frenzy. When the eagles let him off on the head of the Leviathan, his foot had grown back enough to use.
Cleopatra sent streams of fire toward Rugal with each snap of her fingers, and Rugal twisted out of each flaming river as he advanced. He brought his twinsword to bear and struck out, aiming at the soul crystal in the bronze broach on Cleopatra's neck. But he felt his sword connect against the amber gem, Cleopatra's staff crashed against the back of his head, where the clip housing his own gemstone was.
Rugal found himself back in himself. He was sitting on a bench in the silks store. A cup of cold water in his hands. Fu Kua and Livia both eyed him cautiously.
"Are you... okay?"
