Lightning streaked across the sky, and thunder shook the city as the Grand Order of Dread all raised hands overhead.
Damien was on his feet, taking Amma with him and shouting at the others to head into the keep. Being bustled inside, Amma took a last look back at her giant liathau, the gnarled branches appearing dead though she could feel a strange and beautiful necrotic life thrumming through the tree, and above, the silver fissures to the infernal plane began to close as the creatures scattered about Eirengaard were drawn inside them.
The massive doors of Eirengaard Keep shut out the sounds as the planes were torn or mended or whatever in the Abyss it was GOoD was doing. Piled together in the antechamber, Amma’s eyes took in those around her, those who had aided in closing the rift, and those who had stood by her side. Perry was recuperating as Laurel pat his back, Vanders on her shoulder and the knoggelvi and Stitches huddled behind. Winnifred and the mages she had brought from Buckhead were examining the imps who still looked at least a little like household pets as Pippa and Damien’s mother took stock of one another’s holy symbols. Amma squeezed Damien’s hand, feeling the warmth that had almost been ripped away from her, breath finally catching, but then there was shouting from the throne room.
Carefully, Amma went to the entry, the door only cracked,and Damien stayed on her heels. Lifting herself from the ground was the form of Birzuma the Blasphemed, and she came to tower over Xander, screeching. The infernal creatures that had restrained them appeared to have been drawn away, a silver fissure still floating, open, in the hall’s middle. Birzuma continued to berate her son about how long he’d taken to free her and what a disappointingly useless man he’d become.
Xander sputtered back, hands out, never able to completely form an excuse before she cut him off with another cutting remark.
“I feel like we should help him,” Amma whispered.
“Hekilledyou,” Damien growled into her ear.
“Yeah, but he brought me back too, right?”
There was a hand on her shoulder, firm and strong, shifting her gently out of the way. Sword unsheathed, Diana marched past them and into the throne room, calling the demoness’s name.
Vicious eyes snapped to the priestess, the spindly yet hulking form of Birzuma the Blasphemed turning, giving Xander a shove so he fell backward on the steps up to the throne. Exhausted, he remained there, face red and horrified.
“Oh, Diana Bloodthorne, it’s been too long.” She chuckled darkly, crossing arms and smirking. “Ventured out of your little cloister, I see. How’s that goddess of yours? Still useless?”
“You,” called Diana, her voice echoing into the room. “You took my family from me. You had me enthralled, you imprisoned my husband, and worst of all, you hurt myson.”
Amma tapped Damien’s chest from their spot at the edge of the door. “Aww, see, she was just enthralled, but she still loves you.”
He was staring into the hall, wide-eyed and clearly worried, but he managed a nod.
Birzuma groaned. “Yeah, well, I’m a demon, Diana, what didyou expect?”
“What you are has nothing to do with what I expect.” The woman slashed her sword through the air, and the brilliance of it flared blindingly golden. “It’s what you’ve chosen to be.”
The demon began toward where Diana stood, and Amma’s stomach clenched. Damien couldn’t lose his mother, not so soon after getting her back.
“There’s not much you can do about what I choose to be,” said Birzuma, striding closer. “Not when I tricked your feeble mind into being heartbroken over your expendable spawn, and certainly not now either,human.” The word fell from her tongue like ash, bitter and hateful.
Another slash, another flare of light, arcana hanging in the air in the wake of the sword. “I think you forget, Birzuma, because I was always so forgiving of your cruelty, that the reason I was originally sent to Aszath Koth was—”
“To destroy it, yes, yes, I know. And you failed at that too!” Birzuma stopped in the hall’s middle to throw her head back and cackle.
“Not to destroy it,” she called. “To banish its guardian. That is, after all, what I’ve been training for my entire life—to banish demons.” With a final swing of her sword, the symbol she had been carving into the air out of arcana was complete. Diana slammed the tip of her blade into the floor, and a crack drew itself away from the weapon. Extending her palm, the priestess touched the symbol, and it flew through the air toward the demoness.
The fissure above and the new one below coalesced, catching Birzuma between them, and she sucked in a shocked breath, terrifying eyes now terrified. The arcane symbol slammed into her chest, light burst into the throne room of Eirengaard Keep, and when it cleared, the demon and the fissures were no more.
In the brimstoney air that was left, Diana huffed, and Xanderlifted himself from the stairs where he’d been pushed.
The priestess pointed at him, making him fall still, her voice exacting. “Have you stopped being such a little shit?”
“Yes!” Xander was nodding, chest heaving with fear.
“No, mom, he killed Amma!” Damien pushed into the throne room, incensed, dragging Amma along with him.
“I resurrected her!” Xander snarled, shouting back. “It was all part of the plan. Pips, tell them!”
Creeping out of the antechamber, the priestess nodded. “I didn’t condone any of it, but yes, he didn’t want to kill her until he was pretty sure he could also bring her back. That’s why he didn’t do it in Buckhead when we were all in that estate.”
“Pretty sure?” Damien growled, marching up to Diana’s side. “You still stabbed her!”
“To get the talisman out.” Xander was throwing around his hands. “To put a stop to that ridiculous order you gave to her. Why did you do that, Damien? You just look so…sad.”
