“Tea?”
Artemis found herself sitting in a room, royal and lavish. The flickering light of a massive fireplace lit up the entire room and the head of a dragon mounted on a wall above them, she sat at on a soft chair covered in the fur of some unknown creature and she faced a round table, at the other end, Azura, sipping from a small cup with that all too perfect grin. Artemis looked around for a few more moments before asking. “Where did you take me?”
“Nowhere. This is a dream my child, none of it is real. But my words are, this talk is real we are real. Even if the tea is not. So have a sip. We have much to discuss.” Artemis lifted the tea to her eyes and scowled. She looked up at Azura and shattered the glass against the ground. “Why the fuck would I ever talk to the woman who killed my mother? The woman who raised me?!” She was not yet yelling but she was on the verge, and her eyes began to swell up again, she fighted to hide any weakness she may have been showing but it was impossible.
“Your mother? You mean the human woman I ate? Hm. I didn’t know she meant that much to you. Forgive me if I had known I would have been much more professional about things. But she was not your mother, the man you think was your father isn’t either. Your parents were one of us, just like that poor woman you bludgeoned to death last week. Or the man whose throat you slashed open with a sharp rock before that, or the sweet old hunter you strangled to death before him. You may have killed your real parents and not known. Would you have even cared?”
Azura’s voice now had a hint of venom, like a parent scolding a teenager, she spoke with an authoritative confidence that fit her royal demeanour. Artemis couldn’t believe the words coming from this vile woman’s mouth, how she tried to frame her as the villain for protecting people and she was too busy gritting her teeth in silent anger to reply. So Azura continued.
“I told you I would show you the truth. So allow me.” She roomed disappeared around them into the same violet mist that had entered Artemis’s body and was replaced by images that synced with Azura’s every word, painting the story she is telling.
“Our people are not gods, monsters or just larger human beings. We simply are. This world never belonged to us from the start, we were brought here thousands of years ago, through an anomaly made of pure, ancient and unfiltered magic, we entered the world of Pastia from our homeworld, The Cloud Valley. A divine storm opened up a gateway in the clouds at the top of the highest peak in Pastia. We came in peace, spreading the goods and the riches of our world to the poor folk of this one, worth so much more to them than to us because of their size.
I, as the queens hand, personally negotiated with the royal families of Pastia. But despite all we had done for them, they still feared us, for no reason, other than the fact that we were so much bigger than them. They believe our power would upset the balance of nature and the power structure of their monarchy, fear and trepidation from within their kingdoms forced their hands. So they committed acts of genocide against our people, in an attempt to stop our war before it even started as they feared if we struck first, they would never be able to win. Of course they were nowhere near as powerful or strong, but they made up for it in numbers, stealth, and their slew of magic power we giants had only dreamed of wielding. The front lines were always empty no matter how hard we searched for enemy troops. Only when we sleep, would we wake up to see that many of our people will never wake up, their throats surgically cut open in their sleeps.
Artemis was able to make out a single tear rolling down Azura’s cheek, and while she kept her composure much better than Artemis, she could tell she was reliving memories she wished she could forget. “We had no way of knowing when they were coming. Where they were or how many of them, they were silent, effective and merciless. We dropped one by one every night and soon even during the day when one of us made the mistake of going anywhere alone. And then…” she trailed off.
“One night. I had walked into my queen’s room to report that we had found the source of their strongest hunters. But they had already gotten to her. They made sure to send a message with the death of the one I hold most dear, Blood everywhere, and a bloodstained crown sitting dead centre on her royal mattress.
And from then on, I assumed command and we stormed the strongest castle in Pastia, and that. That held the key to turning the tides of war. The source of their magic power. A massive gemstone, one they called the rock of radiance. One we made into an amulet, and one worn by me.” The purple amulet on Azura’s chest blinked a multitude of colours like a miniature borealis. “It grants me great power, and an eternal life so long as I wear it.” She stayed silent for a few moments, returning the room to its original state, and took the last sip of the tea as it was exactly as she left it. “Now our people are scattered, impoverished. Broken. But if I, and a powerful warrior like you band together, we can rebuild our empire. In the name of our queen.”
Artemis was still processing everything she had just heard, just seen. How did she know she could trust what Azura was telling her, it could’ve very well been propaganda, in fact it was almost definitely a skewed perspective, but that wouldn’t explain how she didn’t age since Artemis was a child, Azura’s story did. “My mother did not kill any giants. Yet you murdered her in cold blood.
The people you’ve killed. My friends, my family, my mentors. They were innocent. If they had ever raised arms it was in defense. I’ve spent my early life living among humans and believe me they are helpless against us, we are feared. I remember the stories they used to tell about us. You’ve become exactly the kind of monster they fear and then some. And I promise you this Azura, when I find you, I will kill you. For my family, for my life.”
Azura sighed. “Still a naive child. Defending the very plague that murdered our queen. You are clearly the vengeful type, don’t you want justice for our people? Don’t you want to fight back? To cleanse Pastia of its vermin? It’s little monsters? Don’t you want to end this war? It’s not too late Silvia. Join me.” Azura held her hand out, even though it wasn’t real in this case, the gesture was, and Silvia’s choice here would still define the path she chose. “I’m sorry Azura. But your war is over.
Ours is just beginning.”
Artemis gasped for air and shot up, startling the concerned crowd of humans that had surrounded her. She coughed up the violet mist and Steven ran up to her. “Silvia! What happened what? Where did she go?” She stared daggers through him. “Don’t get used to calling me that, I have an identity to protect remember?” She says upright and caught her breath. “She’s gone. It wasn’t real it was an illusion.” She said between breaths “What was that tavern I found you at again?” She inquired when she finally got the last bits of dizziness out of her head. “Hazel’s you mean?” He asked stiffly a little confused. “Yes. Yes let’s go there, I need a drink.”