Chapter 17: Queen vs. Queen
676 Words
Chapter 17: Queen vs. Queen
The battlefield held its breath.
Smoke curled through the shattered stone of Shadowfang’s courtyard. Broken banners flapped in the rising wind. All around them, warriors stood frozen—some with swords still raised, others half-shifted, panting.
Because she had arrived.
Queen Mairead walked calmly through the fire, untouched. Her silver armor shimmered with a pale blue frost, runes glowing beneath the surface. Her eyes—cold, ancient, filled with hatred—met Ariya’s across the broken ground.
They said Moonborns were rare.
They never said what happened when two stood on opposite sides.
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The First Words
Ariya stepped forward, ignoring the pain in her body, the sting of her split palm, the dried blood on her temple.
She looked Mairead in the eye. “You came all this way to die?”
Mairead’s lips curled. “I came to reclaim what should’ve been mine.”
“This power was never yours.”
“I was chosen,” Mairead snarled, voice echoing like ice cracking over a lake. “Until the moon betrayed me for you. Some half-blood girl who doesn’t even understand the weight she carries.”
Ariya’s eyes narrowed. “Then let me show you.”
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Magic vs. Magic
The air exploded with silver and blue.
Mairead raised her arms, summoning spears of ice from the ground, hurtling them toward Ariya with blistering speed.
Ariya spun, moonfire swirling around her like a shield, melting the shards before they could touch.
She answered with a blast of radiant heat, so pure it singed the grass under their feet. Mairead dodged, teleporting in a blink, reappearing behind Ariya with a blade of frost aimed at her spine.
> CLANG.
Kael’s sword met it just in time.
“She doesn’t fight alone,” Kael growled, pushing Mairead back.
Mairead snarled. “How noble. How weak.”
Ariya turned, eyes blazing. “This isn’t weakness.”
She raised her hand—and the entire sky answered.
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Moonfire Ascends
Ariya’s mark blazed brighter than ever before, a silver corona rising behind her like a second sun. Wind whipped around her as the moon itself seemed to bend toward her call.
From her fingertips came a beam of light—pure, ancient, furious.
Mairead screamed, erecting an ice barrier just in time, but cracks raced through it on contact.
“You can’t stop me!” Mairead shouted. “Even now, your power’s unrefined. Untamed. You will burn yourself out!”
Ariya shook her head. “No.”
Then she took a deep breath.
And stepped forward.
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The Final Blow
The battlefield went still again—one final inhale before the storm’s scream.
Kael shouted something behind her. Guards tried to advance. But Ariya walked through it all—past the corpses, the flame, the blood.
She met Mairead at the center, blade in one hand, light in the other.
Mairead raised her frost spear. “I will end you!”
And Ariya whispered, “You already tried.”
She struck.
Moonfire met frost.
Light met darkness.
There was no scream.
Only silence.
And then—Mairead dropped to her knees, burned, broken, eyes wide with disbelief.
“Why… why didn’t you kill me?”
Ariya stood over her, breathing hard. “Because mercy is power too.”
Then she turned her back.
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Aftermath
Mairead was dragged away in silver chains forged by Ariya’s own hand.
The army dispersed.
The storm passed.
Ariya collapsed in Kael’s arms, tears and sweat streaking her cheeks.
“You did it,” he whispered.
“No,” she said softly, gripping him tight. “We did.”
He kissed her forehead. “You were magnificent.”
And beneath the shattered moonlight, among blood and ash, a queen was truly born.
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Far Away – Unknown Shadows
In a dark forest far beyond the borders, someone watched the sky split.
A figure in a black cloak with eyes like mirrors whispered into the trees:
> “So... the prophecy unfolds.”
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🌒 END OF CHAPTER 17
- Writer
