The Serpent Queen

The river was known to run as though it had a mind of its own. It had to, in order to save itself.

Poisonous black dust plumed overhead, settling atop the swift moving waters as the currents fought to go backwards against all odds, snagging whichever poor, unfortunate soul decided to jump into its tepid streams.

“Save yourself,” Queen Roniya whispered. Hot, thick, air swallowed her whole as the sun rose over the clearing signaling morning had arrived. No guards or Kings-men could dare save the Queen from what was about to happen next, they could barely save themselves.

This would be the day the Queen vanished. But she wasn’t really gone, or so they would come to realize. Protected elders had gone searching for what was left of her charred and mangled body but none was found.

Just upstream Queen Roniya lie quiet on a bed of salted sea grass as the growing tide waters pooled around her. She must’ve fallen asleep. This had proven to be a taxing, laborious journey. Queen Roniya slipped silently under the rough straw of the water-weeds as dragonflies bobbed by unbothered as her hot skin smoldered under the cooling tides. Their legs barely being singed. She was far from home, the farthest she had ever been and yet she felt so free, so alive, so safe.

Black, leaching lava-like ooze seeped up from the dirt next to her, hardening and hissing as it snaked over the Earth, killing everything in its dreaded path. Turning flesh and leaf to fiery stone.

Morning mist hung heavy atop the cool, slow-moving waves. The good Queen ventured deeper, until her skirt sank her like an anchor into the sticky mud and only the tops of her glowing, slatted eyes peeked out from behind her cloaked hood. Her gaze was rumored to reveal truths long hidden.

Screams from nearby villagers told her the blackened snaking lava-like ooze was claiming more lives, pulling them into a frozen abyss, creating statues dotting the landscapes, reminders of the powers the Serpent Queen held.

If only they’d listened. If only…but it was too late, far too late.

A smile slowly crept along the Queen’s face. No one would think to search the river for her now—but that is none the matter—all would be lost if men and mere mortals thought they could stay in the woods defying her orders.

Maybe the myths would prove to be true. Maybe the long-forgotten, long-lost Serpent Queen would finally surface and show her true colors. After all, it was tiring shedding her perfectly proctored skins, burning them nightly so no one would see. She was the protector of all the forgotten woods and their polluted rivers and it was dire time the world had a reawakening.

“No one is safe, nothing is safe. All will fall, all will be lost to time.”

Queen Roniya hissed. Her hair snaking out around her, roving over the branches and capping waves as she slithered by unphased by the powers she had unleashed.

She’d been counting on the flood of burning black lava snaking through the villages to get her safely out of the Kingdom unseen as it swallowed cities whole. Maybe the Kings-men would think she was dead, or maybe they too would die. Only she could restore the withered, decimated crops. No water would trickle over the hardened stone until she was good and ready.

It was a history she would rather not repeat but she was desperate. It had been, after-all, nearly two-hundred years since she’d last shown her serpentine state. There was nothing else she could do, it was clear they had not learned their lesson and yet, Queen Roniya still felt the twinge of confliction deep inside.

She left her friends and family, her town to suffer and possibly die. She was sure amidst all their worry—they were cursing her good name. But this time it wasn’t her fault—surely, they would come to understand. She kept having to remind herself of this. She’d made the best decision, now she would let fate do the rest.

The waters moved the good Queen miles upstream.

The climb through the waist deep water was proving to be far more difficult than she expected as she neared the top of the river peak. Thousands of roving snakes rose above, sprouting from the strands of her hair, crawling out from the tops of her cloak to buzz around the nearby branches.

She could see the brightly shining orbs of the Witches lair through the trees.

Five glowing globes of fire—each light inextinguishable—all moonlit winter shades of jaded silver. One for each Witch of the Oracle.

Queen Roniya held her breath as she stepped over the dirt and into the marble and stone lip. The heights of the caves soared well over a thousand feet above. She was in the mouth of god himself. She’d never seen such earthly beauty before.

Just inside were wading pools of similar mercurial waters—like the orbs glowing above.

Thick waterfalls of stained-glass arched high into the sky—the colors of heavenly snow, frosted abalone and pearlescent opal—run from the top of the caves into the wading pools, collecting fortunes and memories just like hers.

“Queen Roniya, we’ve been waiting for you…” a woman’s sharp, deep voice echoed throughout the cavernous caves.

“It was you who set the woods ablaze. It was you who turned all the land and its people to fiery stone. But like time... you can’t get them back…” another set of voices echoed in unison, reverberating off the wading pools.

“The cards have spoken, you have abused your powers…it’s too late to call the snakes back…” the sharp, deep voice continued.

“Step into the water to hear your fate…”

Chills set through Queen Roniya as the voices ran up her spine. Tarot cards bubbled up to the surface showing her images of the Seven Cups, the River Queen, the Tree of Roots, and the Fools Guide.

She slowly stepped into icy waters. The pools were much bigger than she first expected and the gradual entry proved to be much deeper within a few steps.

The silver, mercurial liquid rippled off her skin. She was unsure how far to go but the voices grew louder and clearer the further she went.

“But alas my-dear, it’s simply far too late. You have done irreparable damage to our world.”

The hissing echo of the Oracle Witches stung like venom as Queen Roniya dared to breath. The heads of her snake-like crown froze, before unleashing a fury unlike anything she’d known. Instinctively lunging in attack as the first set of cuts grazed her skin from an enemy she had yet to meet.

Drops of blood dotted the water in crimson as the good Queen tried catching one of the exploding tarot cards that bubbled up from an unknown geyser at her feet.

The cards slit her skin like a thousand razor sharp teeth. They were fish, schools of paper-thin creatures moving and swimming in unison. Each with a destiny of their own as they whipped around her body for a chance to be seen, be caught, be read by one of the mighty Oracles. Cutting her and the snakes she proudly wore without a second hesitation.

Standing on the tips of her toes Queen Roniya fought to hold steady but it was too much for her to handle.

“Don’t fight my dear, just let go. The waters will guide you…”

Queen Roniya heard the dark and weary echoes of defeat— “the Oracle has made a decision. Your absence proved no obstacle. You chose defiance, you chose treachery, sedition, betrayal of the highest form and for that you must pay.”

The blood rushed from her body as she clung to something sharp in her hand. The magnetic water not allowing her to move as she grasped tightly to whatever it was trying to break free. The card warm, and flat began to beat softly against her hand like it had a heart.

The Oracle Witches thrashed about in a frenzy.

“Wait, Wait, Wait. We have an interruption in the reading…” the chaotic echo of the lesser Queen Oracles circled above Queen Roniya as she floated to the surface.

“She holds in her right hand the card of Triumph housed upon each of the four rivers, the cloned King of Excess in his scepter. We have to set her free, to return her to the river where she belongs, a snake nevermore…”

The blood-curdling screams from the Oracle Witches pierced Queen Roniya’s ears as the oxygen finally ran out and her body went limp.

“She will bring life to the parched soil, and ruin to the men who crossed her.” the dreadful hiss continued— “for she who wears a battle dress in the garden of death will prosper and cast light into the shade of dawn...”

“But she can’t…she can’t prosper…” a third defeated voice snarled.

It was the last thing the good Queen heard before she awoke on the banks of the river. The same river she started at. The waters still flowing opposite their usual ways as her hair floated around her, absent their hissing heads.

The Oracles words echoed madly in her ears as she wondered if it had all been a dream. She knew it hadn't, for floating just at her feet lie the Treason Oracle card with the severed heads of her precious Veiled-Nmydusea-Slyvarines—the Queen’s prized snakes.