Future Imperfect: The Queen of Air and Darkness


Ravenswing

 

Posted

For those new to the idea, Future Imperfect was a small series of stories about Annette/Nitoichi finding an artefact which appeared to show her visions of possible futures, usually pretty bad ones, but sometimes really positive ones. It came from a concept Zortel came up with to give credit where it's due.

Here I've decided to expand it a little and show what might become of another of my characters, especially if they keep getting influenced by small, nymphomaniac fairies.

Future Imperfect: The Queen of Air and Darkness
The Grim Vale, Salamanca, March 2017.
Brigit looked about herself with satisfaction. Her throne was perched atop a dais which allowed her a good view of the revelries going on around her. This particular instance of the celebrations for her rise to power had been going on for around six weeks now and the revellers were beginning to look a little tired. Not that they would stop. Not until they died of exhaustion, anyway. Then she would just take new supplicants from the town and begin again.
One man, naked from the waist up and obviously much the worse for drink, crawled up the steps toward her. To her right, she heard Jacob growl slightly. He was always jealous of potential new suitors. Brigit smiled down at the boy, ignoring Jacob, and beckoned him forward. He crawled, grovelling, to her slippered feet, and began to kiss them, working his way up her shins until she reached down and lifted his chin, looking into his eyes with a beatific smile on her face.
"I live only to bring pleasure to my Queen," he whispered, mesmerised by the soft glow in her eyes.
"I know," Brigit replied and, bending forward slightly, she kissed him briefly on the lips.
The young man stumbled backward, blinking, his hand going to his mouth. When he lowered it, there was blood trickling from his nose. He gasped at the sight of it on his fingers and stumbled, rolling back down the steps. By now, his ears were bleeding, and Brigit continued to smile as more blood began to stream from his tear ducts. He screamed, clawing at his chest and leaving deep, red scratches on the skin, and then fell backward in the snow, staring upward at the cloudy sky, but no longer seeing anything.
Around him, the orgy continued, the other revellers ignoring the man's plight. It could, so easily, be their own. Brigit sat back on her throne and looked out at the vast expanse of snow which covered Salamanca beyond her party glade... and saw the spot of black moving among the white. Rising to her feet, she lifted into the air and glided out, over the heads of the people below, and swept out toward it.
"Nitoichi," Brigit said as she closed on her quarry, "I had thought I would have to leave the otherworld to come find you. All the gateways here are closed off from the other side, or so I thought."
"No," the swordswoman replied, "you did a good job. I had to come in through a gateway in Ireland and take a ship across the Atlantic."
"That is considerable effort to go to to meet your end, Keeper," Brigit said, smiling once more, this time in anticipation.
"This has to stop, Brigit," Ni told her. "I'm giving you one chance. Put things back as they were, free the town."
"Why?" Brigit seemed genuinely perplexed at the suggestion.
"Magic is not meant to rule," Ni said. "I thought Jason taught you better than this. I thought Annette taught you better than this. We helped you free your people, we helped you free Salamanca from the grip of the Redcaps, and you turn around and do this."
"And now," Brigit said, "I shall use you to unlock the doors to the Barrington Club, and use the power there to spread my rule across the world."
Nitoichi drew her katana, allowing it to hang in her grip, and shook her head. "Oh, Brigit, you really should have done your homework better."
Brigit just laughed and raised her hands. Fire roared forth from her palms, enveloping Ni in a writhing tornado of blue-white flame. The snow around her vaporised instantly, a nearby tree burst into flame, and Brigit laughed.
Ni leapt out of the fire tornado with no warning, her katana raised over her head. She was untouched by the flames and Brigit had a brief second to not understand how before the blade swept down, aiming for her neck.

Vigilance Tower, Skyway City, September 2009.
Brigit sat bolt upright in bed, screaming. Her spun-gold hair was glued to her face by sweat and her sheets were damp from the same cause. The nightmare still hung in her mind as she heard the sound of BODICEA's voice.
"Leannan, are you all right?" The AI's tone indicated concern. "I am detecting elevated heart rate and breathing irregularity."
Brigit struggled to control her breathing before she could respond. "I'm... I'm okay. Just a nightmare."
"Perhaps you should discuss it with Dinah," BODICEA suggested. "I understand that dreams can have significance regarding your psychological state."
"Uh, yeah," Brigit responded, starting to pull the sheets off her bed, "I might do that." She would need a shower before she tried to sleep again. The scent of sweat and fear was too strong on her body.


Disclaimer: The above may be humerous, or at least may be an attempt at humour. Try reading it that way.
Posts are OOC unless noted to be IC, or in an IC thread.