Maelys grunted, her eyes going wide. Blood dripped from the corner of her mouth.
Tears streamed down Syrce's cheeks as she twisted the dagger lodged in the other woman's spine.
"My heart cannot let go, so my mind and hand will have to cut you out."
Maelys staggered away, looking at her sister with complete incomprehension. Noble felt the betrayal deeply, Mae's hurt nearly breaking the Master's heart with its sincerity.
Did the Other really believe Syrce was her sister, or was she caught off guard by the sudden turn of events?
Blood poured from the wound, soaking the elder Saint's tunic. Noble expected her to fight back, to attack, but all that came from her lips was a timid cry.
"Ceecee?"
Syrce gripped the dagger, her grey eyes a storm of barely bridled energy.
"My sister is dead. You are not her. You are a lie."
The words cut deeper than any wound, severing the bond that the Other clung to. Noble felt the emotional break as if it were one of her own bones.
For a moment, Noble believed she had made a grave mistake. Had she accidentally convinced one sister to kill another?
Noble would never be able to live with herself if this were so.
But then Maelys's face changed. Her beautiful grey eyes were replaced with dead, empty ones. She turned them on Noble, an aura of absolute hatred pressing against the Master with a force that would kill a mundane human.
"You!" She screamed in a voice that sounded nothing like her own.
Unhindered by her fatal injury, Maelys sprang at Noble like a tiger. The Saint's hands transformed into deadly claws. They aimed for Noble's chest.
If her heart were to be ripped out by Syrce, then Mae would take Noble's as compensation.
But Child of Promise was not a fool. She evaded the woman and took to the air. Syrce grabbed the Other by the arm and spun her around, plunging the dagger into the monster's chest. More blood flowed.
Maelys screamed. Her claw raked across Syrce's cheek, drawing blood from the stunning Saint's face.
Retrieving her dagger, Syrce kicked the Other in the chest and pulled away.
"Don't hurt my friend!"
Maelys lay on the ground in a pool of blood. A cut to the spine and a stab to the heart were both fatal wounds. But before Mae could succumb to them, a strange thing happened.
The Others around them, having not moved from their watchful positions in the shadows, began to shake and shiver. Black wisps rose from their bodies, filling the air and funneling toward their coral-haired leader.
The mist flowed into the Other, and she gasped. Noble watched in horror as the wounds closed.
Almost instantly, she was back to her lovely self in every way, but those empty, gaping eyes.
"That's…different." Syrce took a step back.
By her surprise, this was not a capability that the real Maelys had possessed. It made some sense. Unlike Flint's copy, which had easily given up when stabbed by Noble, Maelys was not one who would be easily surrendered by her kind. They had somehow given of themselves to revive their leader, but how much had it cost them?
'Not enough.'
A blink of an eye later, and the rest of the Others converged on the cohort. Helie hit two with her bow while Aether defended himself with his blade of starlight.
Noble dug her Zenith into the man that jumped at her, slicing him cleanly in two. His body immediately dissolved into mist, absorbed by his mistress. The rest of the dead dissolved as well. Noble tried to catch the mist with the mirror as she had before, but Mae's control over the strange ether was just too great.
Gritting his teeth, Roan summoned lightning to strike the pseudo Saint, hitting her in the same spot that had just recently healed.
Maelys welcomed the charge, lifting her face to the heavens with open arms. The bolt and the black mist surrounded her body, a mix of light and darkness.
The Other took a deep breath and smiled. "Different, indeed, sister. You will never lose me again."
"Each copy's death leads to Maelys growing in power!" Roan hissed. He wounded one instead of simply letting him die.
Sryce tried to slice off Maelys's head. Surely that would put an end to the madness. But Mae dodged, digging her fingers into Syrce's arm and drawing blood.
Mae pushed past the younger sister and rushed Noble.
Her eyes were fixated on the bundle under the floating Master's arm.
"She's after the mirror!" Helie screamed as Noble shifted her shoulder away. Maelys landed on the ground on all fours, growling like an animal.
"Don't let her have it!" Syrce grabbed her Maelys's arm as she tackled her.
"We have to get it out of here." Roan urged Noble.
"I'm not leaving without Syrce." Child of Promise wielded her sword.
"Go!" Syrce ordered. "I'll be right behind you!"
Noble looked at her group.
They were surrounded and at a gross numerical disadvantage. Because Noble could only feel some of their emotional signatures, she wasn't even sure how many of these Others there were. She could try to use her second sight, but even then, her count would be imperfect.
To protect themselves and the mirror, they needed to take the only exit: up.
None of the Others could fly, at least not that Noble had seen. If they somehow followed Noble and her crew, then at least they would be fighting on her terms and be drawn away from the unsuspecting soldiers under Syrce's command.
As she lifted the other Masters into the air, Noble silently strengthened her Kingdom Keeper bond both with them and the humans in Bastion. While she hadn't been able to save Flint, she hoped that it would at the very least increase everyone else's chance of survival.
They would need all the help they could get.
Arrows flew at the cohort, but Syrce's Transcendent form incinerated them before Noble could deflect them. The ball of energy fled toward the main keep, beckoning Noble and her people to follow.
The galaxy of energy tilted toward the ground, and Noble could sense the anxiety the Saint was feeling for her people.
"We are under attack! Maelys's men are monsters in disguise. Barricade yourself if you can, and fight if you must!"
Roan finished summoning his griffin and split with the rest. "I'll warn those in the square and circle to meet you."
His companions nodded. Away from the projectiles of the enemy, Noble allowed the other two Masters to fan out in the air and spread the news as well.
They raced toward the tower at the top of the hill.
"We are heading toward Anvil's workshop!" Helie said between warnings.
Indeed, that was the spot where the group seemed to be heading. It was the highest point and out of reach of where the Others were right now. It made sense that they would seek the high ground.
Noble had only witnessed the tower from afar before. She had heard the clanging coming from the palace, but hadn't given it much thought. In the Nightmare, the elevated room had no furniture in it.
It had been cleared by one of the cohort and was free of abominations.
Was there something special about the place where Anvil held his forge, or did it only have symbolic significance? It certainly wasn't an ideal place to keep a forge.
There would be time to think about that later. The group had more pressing matters.
The world flew by.
As they neared the keep, Noble yelled her final plea to the soldiers on the ground before turning steeply upwards, barely avoiding the stone wall. She wished she could bring all of Syrce's men with her, but that capability was beyond her grasp. So Child of Promise reluctantly left them behind in search of higher ground.
Rather than lead them into the castle, as Noble supposed Syrce would, the Saint alighted on the roof and took her healed human form. Noble brought the two other Masters to rest beside her as she continued her usual hover.
Syrce looked frantically about. "Where is Roan?"
"There!" Helie pointed past the far side of the tower.
Within a second, the griffin landed on the roof with a growl.
"I've told everyone I could," he said breathlessly. "I think...Oh..."
The five people looked out at the hillside, their minds taking in the scene.
Finally, Syrce spoke.
"Well, that's not good…"