Eliza In The Flesh!: the call of godspawn. XI

The Duchess of Rainford watches as the earth begins to tremble, and chains wrap around the Godspawn, swallowing her back into the realm of her alien parents. Then she realizes the girl is no longer screaming. She is laughing.

 

“Poor, poor duchess!” She spits. The windows behind her began to open, revealing vines of a creature more ancient than the girl. The duchess’ face pales. “Have you met my brother yet? He can’t wait to meet you!” The walls began to shift around something. Another monster. The Greater Godspawn. Like escaping the water, something the duchess could only describe as a tree reaches out and lurks toward its sister’s aid. Its branches were fluid, moving around like veins in the human. Blue outline with red creeping through.

 

The duchess realizes that this is a battle she cannot afford to lose, so she bolts for the front door, both siblings trailing after her. When she reaches the doors of the main entrance, she shuts it close, moving some leftover furniture in front of it. She sits and rests, though she can’t afford that time. Looking around the hall of mirrors and listening to the banging outside, she tries to think where she would find stolen things.

 

To be frank, the duchess didn’t even know what she was looking for. Only that she had felt something being taken from her with each passing day since the house first arrived. More accurately, since Raventown first arrived.

 

There were two doors on either side of the hall. They both had golden knobs and were attached to rectangular mirrors. She chose a side and opened the door. There she found a crow, or at least, what’s left of one. She was stitched together and locked in a cage with the key hanging from the wall. The duchess glanced at the key, then at the door with one of The Greater Godspawn’s veins slipping underneath. Swiftly unlocking the cage, she opened the cage as the crow began to lift her head from her previous resting phase, watching her with her own eyes. One of the only things that had not been replaced.

 

The duchess opened the gate, and the crow did not move, so she tried to drag her out instead. “Go,” she whispered hurriedly. “Distract them!” The crow seemed to understand her request as it stretched out its lion’s feet and gave out a loud screech belonging to an unknown animal as it began to nip at the Godspawn’s vines. Since the cage was all there was, she made her way across to the other door.

 

She was greeted by a crown and a sword. The crown was placed in a glass display and the sword was kept in a sheath. She opened the display, hoping to find what she was looking for, picked up the crown and frowned. This was not what she was looking for, but she felt compelled to keep it anyway. Something about being a noble and missing that status. As for the sword, she had lost hers, and she had no intention of facing two eldritch monsters without some sort of weapon.

 

The front doors burst open, and the duchess left quickly. Outside was both of the Godspawn of untold potential. She wondered silently, if she had faced them alone, would she still have won? To her and to many, the answer to her question would always be “no.” But unlike those many, Elizabeth knew the response.

 

With the exit in front of her and darkness behind, she watched as her freed companion swooped around the two, staying some distance while trying to tear off their limbs. The Greater Godspawn took note of this, and swatted her away, but she rebounded. Constantly scratching their faces with her claws whenever she had the chance to. 

 

The duchess looked back at the door she had come from, gazing into her reflection. It gazed back, but less, and less human. Any features that distinguished her were gone. Dissolved. The sudden sight of it made her heart jump into her throat as her legs buckled in exhaustion. The eldritch creatures began to round on her, and her reflection placed a hand onto the glass. The many ghosts in the reflection all felt so much like mortals despite their dehumanization. The duchess blinked. 

 

Maybe they were.

 

She gripped the sword in its sheath as the siblings both reached out to her. With a sweep of her hand and the twist of her wrist, she sliced them both in half. They retracted back, more furious than fearful, but the duchess wasn’t done. She found her legs, and forced herself back onto her feet. She raised both arms, the hilt of the sword in her hands, and drove it into the mirror.

 

The glass cracked, spreading its crevices through the entire house. With the turn of the blade, a thousand spirits were set loose, including part of her own. In a blinding light basking her world, her legs began to move on their own, taking the time to use the escape to run as far as possible from the house, but the ghosts only followed her. Some thankful, others too caught up in blubbering tears to muster a word. The last thing she saw were the stars as her world flashed from white to pitch darkness.

 

The house still remained, but its contents long since freed. The Greater Godspawn began to retreat into the house to

 

Eliza awoke to a tap next to her face as she jolted suddenly awake. “If you’re not going to read, the least you can do is respect my library, duchess,” the librarian from earlier scowled at her. She stared at her, confused. She had a very strange dream about a something called a godspawn and mirrors and—

 

Wait, what was she doing in the library anyway?

 

In the midst of her overlapping and very perplexed thoughts, one idea pointed out that the librarian had very nice eyes, like there were stars in them. Where she had seen them once before was a mystery she planned to leave unresolved. She stretched her arms out, stifling a yawn before getting up to leave. Perhaps she should sleep in libraries more often. She felt more refreshed than usual.

 

As she passed through the bookshelves to the exit, a single very familiar book caught her eye. “The Call of Godspawn,” its title read. She hesitated for a moment, wondering where she had seen it before. Then she looked at the librarian and decided it was probably not worth her time.

 

Somewhere far, far away, a crow with her wings, a knight with his love, and a thief with his prince are wondering about the very same book as they look up at the sky to watch the stars.