Nanowrimo 2023 Best Bit and Word Count - Day 28 and 29 (Patreon)

The past two days I've added over 5,000 words in order to bring my total word count past the Nanowrimo goal at 50,181! This is my 8th completed Nanowrimo

Ayden's eyes went wide as sudden realization hit her. "You meant to invade Blue first. That's why you had soldiers raiding our borderlands."

"A final crescendo in my symphony of revenge!" the Red Queen said with bombastic enthusiasm. "And once I was empress, I could have my pick of the young noblemen. My legacy would be secure."

Ayden scoffed, readying her blade. "And you call me a monster."

The Red Queen's face fell, manic energy turning cold. "You are. And monsters are meant to be slain."

Ayden braced herself, bringing her sword up to parry as the queen swung with her axe. But, in the blink of an eye the queen changed directions, her axe aiming not for Ayden's head, but for something much lower.

Pain. Pain from what once was flesh. Pain from limbs that had been little more than heavy phantoms for years. Ayden collapsed to the floor, unable to even scream as the pain wracked her body. Shaking hands touched her leg, a sob caught in her throat as she felt the crack that had been left behind by the queen's strike. She did not know her glass could be broken. The maids had splintered broom handles in their attempts at it.

She tried to push herself up, to get back to her feet despite the pain, but her cracked leg would not move. Her magic had abandoned it. Abandoned her. And now she was once again on the floor before the Queen of Red, pathetic and weak as she had once been all those years ago.

"Iskra, please!" the Queen of Yellow shouted down from the mezzanine.

"That's enough!" the Red King joined in, his voice pained.

"Fools," the queen hissed. "It's never enough. Not until this bastard is put down like the feral bitch she is, and I receive what I am owed!"

Ayden closed her eyes against the coming strike, but it did not come. Ayden blinked, eyes going wide at the sight of Percival's back as he knelt before her, rifle pointed at the Queen of Red's head.

"Don't." Percival said, his voice caught between hard determination and desperate pleading.

The queen stared down at him with cold, unfeeling eyes. There was no sense of familial piety, no love for the young man in front of her.

"Ungrateful cur."

The queen spun the axe around in her hand, slamming the dull spike into Percival's side with enough force to send him flying across the room. His rifle clattered to the floor mere centimeters from where he'd knelt not seconds before.

"PERCIVAL!"

Something in Ayden broke in that moment as her scream bounced off the gilded ceilings. Tiny, pinging sounds followed her cry. Pricks of pain on the top of her hands had her looking down to the floor beneath her.

Glass. Glass was falling from her eyes like tears. No. The glass was her tears, tiny refracting shards scattered across the marble floor and pricking at the skin of her hands as they fell from her cheeks.

But the pain was nothing like the burning, aching feeling deep in her chest. She thought there was nothing left these people could do to hurt her. She was wrong.

"Don't worry, child," the Red Queen said, her words devoid of comfort. She brought her axe up over her head. "You'll join him soon.

The thundering crack of a rifle sent Ayden's ears ringing. The sound of metal hitting metal followed it. Ayden turned, eyes wide and barely able to see through her tears, to see Laurent standing with his rifle up, the end of the barrel smoking.

"Get up, Ayden!" he shouted, firm and without fear. "You can cry all you need, but you have to stand! Up!"

The Red Queen scoffed, turning to face Laurent with a look of disgust. "It seems all men are weak to the wiles of Blue. Pathetic."

Ayden watched the Queen approach her friends, the Red King and Yellow royals shouting at her to stop. That this was enough. That her point had been made. Even as the madwoman approached, Laurent hesitated to shoot again. Ayden had to be the one to do it. And they'd die waiting for her.

"Leave them alone."

The Red Queen paused, turning to glare over her shoulder. She opened her mouth to say something cruel and condescending, but her words failed her as iridescent ribbons burst from Ayden's back once more, brighter and more luminescent than before.

"I said." Ayden hauled herself to her feet, stabbing her sword into the marble floor. Her legs wobbled, the crack in her calf growing. "Leave. Them. Alone."

"You're not in any position to be making demands, child," the Red Queen hissed.

Ayden rolled her shoulders back, holding her head high like her mother taught her all those years ago. "We'll see."